Artemis Fowl and the Inverse Operation
by lilbanili
Summary: Opal from the past is still on the loose, and she has a new plan. When a vial is found containing old magic and demons disappear, Artemis must turn to an odd girl for hep - someone tied to his past. NOT an Arty/OC fic! Not enough words, better inside! R/R
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Pyramids and Vials

**France**

The country of France has, since the beginning of its foundation, been a center of creative intellect and art. Paris overflows with old symbols and masterpieces. The very center of the city is the Eiffel Tower, a great symbol of French power and creativity.

It is in Paris that the four greatest art museums in the world rest. All sit exactly on the points of the compass; to the north, the Pompidou Center, which holds the Museum of Modern Art; to the west, Musée Jeu de Paume, to the south, Musée d'Orsay, and to the east, Musée du Louvre. None of the first three can hold the glory of the last. The Louvre holds a stock of 65,300 pieces of incredibly famous artwork, among these the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Venus de Milo, The Wedding Feast at Cana, and Winged Victory. The entire building is horseshoe shaped and is three miles in perimeter. It is one of the most famous places in the entire world.

The perfect place, Artemis thought, for hidden fairy secrets.

Artemis Fowl II stood at the end of the Great Gallery, ignoring the masterpieces around him with difficulty. He'd seen the Louvre collection, of course - he prided himself on the fact that he had seen every one of its paintings. The floor of the Grand Gallery, with its various shades of brown, seemed to swirl around him, trying to entice him towards the paintings. That wasn't what he was here for, though. Artemis glanced up at his hulking bodyguard, Butler.

"You know what to do," he said simply, running his fingers over his watch face to activate the cameras he'd placed around the Gallery. Putting on a pair of dark sunglasses and shoving a pair of headphones into his ears, he slumped against the wall, the picture of teen boredom. In actuality, the glasses and earphones were not glasses and earphones at all. The "music player" in his pocket was recording everything that everyone said in the Gallery and sending it to a privet file in his own computer back at the Fowl Mansion. The sunglasses were based on fairy technology, also geared to his computer at home. He performed a series of blinks that opened the feeds from the cameras around the room - cameras so small that no one would ever be able to find them. He twitched his left eye, switching his view until he found what he was looking for.

Watching the man from across the Gallery, Artemis couldn't help but grin in the shadows. He watched the tall figure for some minutes while Butler slowly and quietly walked toward him. The Gallery was almost empty save for them; it was near closing time. A few lone scholars, a group of school children. Artemis grimaced. He didn't want children here right now. Leave, he thought frantically. They would ruin everything. There could be no one here to witness. He held off his order to Butler, watching the kids chasing each other around their guardian. Finally the frazzled woman had seen enough, and dragged them out of the hall, their high voices ringing off the walls as they complained. Artemis relaxed slightly and watched as the scholars left as well. Very soon he, Butler and the man were the only ones in the Gallery, and Artemis had the advantage.

"Now," he said softly, knowing that the tiny microphone suctioned below his jaw would convey the order to Butler instantly. The teen took off his glasses and tossed them into his backpack, along with the earphones. The jeans-and-t-shirt look had been a good surprise before, and it hadn't failed him this time. He left his bag in the corner. If things went wrong, he didn't really need it, and things shouldn't go wrong, anyways.

Butler already had the man whimpering in a corner by the time Artemis arrived, puffing after traveling almost the entire length of the Gallery. He gave Butler a nod, and the man stepped obediently away from the thin figure.

The man was tall and thin, with a hawk like nose and beady, water black eyes. His hair was a muted gray with black lines running through it, giving a hint at darker coloring in his earlier years. The skin around his eyes and mouth was folded and creased like old paper. Right now, he was leaning against the wall beside a Da Vinci, quivering slightly.

"Professor Alexander Hoffthern, I presume? Oh, come now, don't act surprised, Professor, you can hardly say that you didn't expect me sooner or later," Artemis chided lightly. "A man of your intellect and - how shall I phrase this - status cannot afford to be careless. No doubt you are aware that I have been tracking your movements for some time now. Three months, I believe? You're privet files have been most helpful, let me assure you." He gave the man a toothy smile. Hoffthern shrank back further against the wall.

"What do you want with me, Fowl?" he wailed pathetically. "I've got nothing you want!"

"Your files disagree. And yet, I am surprised that you have not made a solid conclusion. The information was extensive, the analysis disappointing. You made me do more work than I had expected. Perhaps I have overestimated your intelligence," he mused. "It is possible. I tend to forget how idiotic the general population can be."

"What are you talking about?" Hoffthern asked, his eyes flickering around for some kind of escape.

Artemis chuckled. "I'm sure you know, my good man. I came to deliver a message, actually." He turned serious, all playful bantering gone. "Do not continue this search, Hoffthern. It will not end well. No," he said, raising a hand at the man's fearful look, "I am not threatening you. Certain… others are very interested in this object as well. I have made it my personal job to keep it from them. Stay out of my way, and theirs. Understand?" The man nodded furiously. "Good. Take your leave, Professor."

The man jerked towards the exit to the Gallery and ran away as fast as his conveniently long legs would carry him. Artemis sighed.

"Well, that went well," he said, taking off his jacket to reveal a silk, tailor-made shirt underneath. He buttoned the cuffs neatly. "At least nothing exploded."

Butler smiled thinly. "If we're not dead or dying by the end of it, Artemis, I count it as a victory."

Artemis smiled up at his massive friend. "I must agree. We've had quite a few of those, have we not?" The smiled fell from his face as he looked out of the Gallery. "One last stop before we head back, old friend," he murmured. "There's something I must see to."

Butler shrugged, used to his charge's secretive mannerisms. "Whatever you say."

After retrieving his backpack, Artemis led the way back up to the entrance floor, namely to the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall in the Louvre. The young protégé ordered his bodyguard to do what he did best - guard. Butler stood with his back turned away from Artemis, wanting to see what the boy was doing but unwilling to intrude if the mission was really so important.

Artemis watched Butler for a moment to make sure that he wouldn't turn around. He trusted his bodyguard like he trusted his own hand, but he wasn't willing to risk the situation. Everything depended on this object staying hidden.

Sweeping his hair back from his eyes, Artemis looked up at the massive La Pyramide Inversée. The lesser known of the two famous pyramids at the Louvre, it is a mirror image - literally - of La Pyramide, which is located outside of the Louvre in the courtyard. The Inverse Pyramid was build just like the Pyramid, but it descends into the ground rather than ascending above it. The tip comes to rest at 1.4 meters above the ground. In between the floor and the tip, the most looked over piece of art in the museum sits. It is a small stone pyramid, mirroring the tip of the Inverse Pyramid. It is about three feet high and made of simple tan colored stone. It was upon this that Artemis focused his attention.

Not taking his eyes off of the pyramid, Artemis reached into the back pocket of his jeans - cringe - and pulled out his cell phone. Using an application that he'd invented himself, Artemis scanned the pyramid and smiled slightly. It was just as he'd hoped. The pyramid was virtually nonexistent in the eyes of the machine - a simple void where there should have been some kind of reaction. The inside of the pyramid was most likely hollow, with a lead lining inside. Artemis tapped his chin with his index finger.

A while ago, while browsing Foaly's files (top secret files, of course), he'd come across a file marked "The Inverse Pyramid". Intrigued, Artemis had broken the codes protecting the file. They had been numerous and incredibly complex. It had taken him almost fifteen minutes to break through them all, the longest that he had ever worked on breaking any code. Usually they took him all of ten seconds. Foaly had obviously put all of his centaur mind power into creating that code. The intense security only prompted Artemis' curiosity.

Using the knowledge that he had gained from that file, Artemis pressed his right hand to the north facing side of the stone pyramid. Using his free hand, he took a silver rod, covered in Old Gnomish script, out of his backpack. The script glowed with blue fairy magic. He shivered as he felt the power of the ancient words written on the silver metal. He had created the rod using blueprints in Foaly's file. Using his own tools, he had taken absolutely pure silver, found in the fairy city of Atlantis, and carved ancient Gnomish words of power into it. The words themselves were derived from a time when the Gnomish speech was used by demon warlocks to cast spells. The power in the symbols still held, though no living soul on Earth knew how to pronounce the words anymore. Infinitely more complex than the modern Gnomish language, this ancient text was incredibly descriptive and hard to use. The lines and lines of text on the rod made only one sentence:

Open, and Reveal your Secrets

Artemis, keeping his right hand pressed firmly against the pyramid, drew the rod along the four sides of the pyramid. The lines glowed blue, like the script. Then, on the north face, Artemis carefully wrote out the same words that were written on the rod around his hand. The words stayed, glowing in the darkening light flittering through La Pyramide Inversée, floating slightly above the stone. Finished, Artemis pushed the rod in between the two pyramid's apexes. It latched onto the one above, and slowly the smaller pyramid's sides began to separate. They set down on the floor silently, and Artemis leaned into the square the pieces now surrounded.

A small diamond vial sat in the center of the square. Inside the vial, what looked like a black fire flickered and twisted. Artemis took this vial out, put it in his pocket, and closed the pyramid again.

He walked past Butler, his footsteps silent as the lights started to go out. "Come, Butler. Our work is finished here."

Butler wondered if Artemis had developed a twitch. The youth kept throwing wary glances out the back window, as if searching for something. It wasn't like Artemis Fowl to be nervous. Whatever he had done at the Louvre, it had him on edge. Not a thing easily done, Butler thought warily. When Artemis was nervous, everyone had a reason to be nervous.

Artemis was, in fact, looking for something. Or rather, making sure that nothing was there at all. He patted his pocket for the ninth time, making sure that the vile was still there and safe. He looked out the back window again and focused his eyes on one spot, watching for telltale waves in the air that would portray fairy presence. He found none, and forced himself to relax.

You took all necessary precautions, he reasoned. There is no one following you. No one even knows that you made this trip.

He meditated for the rest of the drive to the privet airport. His jet - the fastest he owned - was waiting on the runway. No one was at the airport; everyone had the day off, with a little prompting from Master Fowl. Butler prepped the plane and Artemis sat in the cockpit. Finally they were in the air, and Artemis began to really relax with the mission almost over.

The flight back to Fowl Manner was a little over an hour long, using the incredibly fast craft. Artemis ordered Butler to cool the plane down. Meanwhile, he went inside through the kitchen door, climbing the stair to his bedroom. Unobserved, he opened an invisible safe in the wall. The interior was lined with lead and there were four lock mechanisms, layered, on the inside. He opened these, again taking care to make sure that no fairies were hidden in the room, and slipped the vile out of his pocket and into the safe. He quickly closed it and the flopped into a chair.

It was done. The tiny black dot of energy contained in the vile was safe. No one knew he had it, and no one ever would.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Nothing's ever simple

**Ireland**

Holly Short was not having a good day. She'd been woken before sunrise to round up a group of swear toads, and hadn't gotten to eat breakfast. Commander Vinyaya had ordered her to scout out the sight of a criminal they'd _already captured_, to try and find hostages that no one thought existed (she had found no hostages). She'd missed lunch trying to get Foaly to lend her a pair of wings so that she could fly out on her next mission, which sounded at least a little more promising. A troll was on the loose above ground, and it was her job to find it.

_Back to the beginning,_ Holly thought sourly, doing her best to ignore her rumbling stomach. She was now flying at a frightening speed through the air above the Irish countryside, a few miles away from Fowl Manner.

"Holly, have you _eaten_ today?" Foaly's voice sounded through her helmet. "Your readouts are shaky."

"No," she snapped, "I have not. And I won't until I get this stupid troll back where it belongs. I'm full up on magic anyways."

She heard him sigh over the other end. "I forgot how grumpy you get when your metabolism is low…" he muttered. Holly pretended not to hear him. Instead she focused on the farmland below her. Potato farms, by the look of it. Like Ireland didn't have enough potatoes.

"Foaly, can you give me a location?" she asked, scanning the area.

"Try flying about four degrees to the west," Foaly advised. "

One mile, tops. He's there."

"If you know where he is, why did they need me to come out here?" she asked roughly.

She could almost feel him shrug. "Your guess is as good as mine, sourpuss."

Holly grimaced. "Sorry, Foaly. I'm just having a bad day."

"I could tell."

She sighed. "Let's bring him in. You've got a LEP squad shielded and ready to move?"

"Rodger that."

"Don't talk like that, Foaly. It's not funny."

He grumbled. "Go fight a troll."

"I can't believe you ever found a girl," she taunted. As he made an insulted reply, she noticed a slight whistle in the air. "Foaly, what are your readings on the area?" she asked suddenly. "Any ships?"

"No," he said, and she heard clicking in the background as he typed. "Nothing but… well, what are you?" he muttered. She heard the click on keys again, and then a sudden intake of breath. Foaly had made a discovery. She figured it would be bad.

"Holly, out, now," Foaly ordered. His voice was as no-nonsense as she'd ever heard it. When Foaly talked like _that_, you did what he said, and quickly.

"Which direction?" she asked, pulling out her blaster.

"It's coming at you from the south. I suggest that you fly any other way, as fast as you can."

"Foaly, what _is_ it?" she asked, flipping around to the south. She squinted around her, magnifying her vision with her helmet. Nothing. Except…

"Is that a blue rinse missile?" she gasped. Foaly was typing furiously on his keyboard.

"Yes, and not one of ours. I can't control it. Holly, I order you out of the field right now. It's programmed to go off in one minute, and it has a mile wide kill radius."

"Anyone in the area that I should worry about saving?"

"Only if you care about cows enough to risk you life."

She kicked her wings into full gear and started flying east at about 100 miles per hour. "Not today," she answered.

She was a good mile away from her starting point when Foaly spoke again. "It's heat seeking!" he warned. "You're about a half a mile apart, and you've got 20 seconds."

She groaned and forced another 50 mph out of her suit. Exactly 18 seconds later, she pulled a mile ahead. One second after that, the missile behind her exploded.

When Foaly said "kill zone", he was speaking about the blue rinse. The actual radius of impact was more like two miles. Holly was pushed forward about this far by the explosion. Finally she was able to land rather roughly in a patch of trees outside some farm's house. She sat down on a stump and waited for her heartbeat to calm.

"And… she lives!" Foaly exclaimed.

"You are fazed by nothing," she panted. "Doesn't it get tiring, making lame jokes all the time?"

"No," he answered bluntly. "I think you should come back now. The troll was in the mile radius. Not much can be done now that he's been atomized."

Holly stood, cracking her collar bone to get her magic flowing. She shielded and vaulted into the sky. "Can do."

As she flew back towards the entrance to the Underground, she asked Foaly, "Who sent the missile?"

"Can't figure it out," Foaly muttered back. "I've run every kind of search, but I can't find any kind of manufacturer or signature. It can't be traced."

"You can't track it?" Holly was flabbergasted. "Since when has something been untraceable to you?"

"This would be a first," Foaly admitted. "Now, who do we know who smart enough to build something I can't track…?"

"Opal, but she's safely locked in a cell miles underground," Holly replied. "And, of course…" She trailed off.

"Artemis Fowl?"

"He would never," she snapped. "You know that."

"I know, I know," he replied swiftly. "He's all good guy now. Relax. I'm just saying, maybe you should pay him a visit. He might be able to track it," he said grudgingly.

Holly chuckled. "Has the great Foaly admitted that a common Mud Boy might be smarter than he?"

"We're in the 21st century, Holly. If I can't say 'Rodger', you can't talk like your in a human play."

She ignored him. "I'm heading for Fowl Manner. Cover for me."

Foaly snickered. "Have fun."

Holly grimaced. "If I'm lucky, he'll have some food." Of course, luck hadn't been her prominent force today, and she had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to change any time soon.

Ten minutes later Holly touched down on Artemis's driveway. She powered down her wings and made sure that she was still shielded. The last thing Artemis needed was more questions from his parents. His mother had been told everything - after being controlled by Opal Koboi a few months ago, she had been granted access to information in Opal's mind. Artemis had been forced to explain, but they had come to the agreement that his father would not be told until the next year. Angeline Fowl was unsure as to why her son wanted the unveiling to be at this particular time, but she had decided not to question him.

Holly walked around the house to the kitchen entrance, tapping her foot in front of the door. She knew from past experience that Artemis could tell when a shielded fairy was nearby.

A few seconds later, the door opened. Artemis held the door open and said, "It's alright. Father is at a business meeting in Germany, and the twins are with Mother at the park."

Holly unshielded and smiled up at her human friend. "Good to see you, Arty."

He smiled slightly. "Come in, please," he said, shutting the door behind her. "So, what is the occasion?"

She sat on one of the stools around the sink. "I would ask you to make me something to eat, but I don't trust you," she said. Artemis noted that she was avoiding the question. Whatever Holly was here for, it wasn't simple visiting.

The boy opened the refrigerator and looked inside. "You're probably right," he said grimly. "Butler tells me that I could 'burn ice', whatever that means."

Holly chuckled at her friend's blunt inexperience with domestic care. "It's fine. Don't strain yourself," she taunted. Artemis closed the fridge and picked up a cup of Earl Grey tea, which he had been drinking prior to Holly's arrival.

"You've yet to tell me why you are here, Captain Short," Artemis said, sipping his tea. "I gather that this is not a friendly visit."

Holly sighed. Of course Artemis would see that something had gone wrong. "I was out looking for a troll and was attacked. A heat seeking blue rinse missile was tracking me."

Artemis paused mid-sip. He set his cup down, the china clinking gently on the marble countertop. "Range?" he asked, fully engaged now.

"One mile kill radius, two mile effect zone."

Artemis frowned. "That's not like LEP missiles. I know that they can be programmed to be put into smaller or larger areas -" he decided not to mention that he had done so himself numerous times "- but not quite in that large of an area. Usually," he amended. He had once programmed a blue rinse missile to have a five mile range, but he had never used it. In fact, he had never used any of his missiles. They were safely stored away in an underground safe in Russia.

"Well," Holly answered, "this one was. I barely escaped it. Not only that, but Foaly can't track it at all. He says that there's no signature."

Artemis scoffed. "Of course he is incorrect. There is always a signature. Come," he said, walking briskly out of the kitchen. Holly leaped off the stool and followed him up the stairs to his office. The entire right hand wall was made of computer screens, giving various images of the house. The left side of the room was home to a large desk, on which sat three computers, a keyboard and a mouse. Artemis spoke to the room. "Engage scan for fairy technology in a radius of…" He paused, looking at Holly. She held up five fingers, estimating the distance. "…five miles," he continued. He sat at the computer, watching the screens intently. The first thing it discovered was, of course, Holly's suit, which was brimming with fairy technology. A quick order through the keyboard skipped over the machinery. He found a surface capsule, which proved to be some fairies traveling to the surface for the Ritual. _Ah, yes, the full moon is tonight_, Artemis thought. Finally, 4.6 miles to the north-west, he found traces of a blue rinse missile, as well as damage to a small, abandoned farmhouse that had also received impact. Unlike the usual missiles, this one had apparently been both chemically dangerous and explosive. He ran his fingers across the board, searching.

"I assume that Foaly took scans of the actual missile?" he asked. "They would be valuable."

Holly pulled her visor down. "Can do," she replied, bringing Foaly up. He listened to her request and then broke into Artemis's system, appearing on the screen.

"What do you need, Mud Boy?" he asked. "It had better be interesting. I'm running out of things to do in this office. I've been playing Tetris for the past two hours."

Artemis didn't look up from the computer screen. "I need the results from the scans you ran on the missile that attacked Holly," he said swiftly.

Foaly leaned over to his right and sent the file. "Why?"

"I can't make bricks without clay, Foaly," Artemis replied. He opened the file, searching through the information. Finally he looked up from the screen. His face was pale - paler than usual. He looked slightly ill. "It's a Koboi missile, made in Atlantis. Incredibly subtle, but her design is quite distinct if you know what to look for. See the two prongs on the right wing?" he asked, drawing up a diagram that Foaly had built with the information. "That is Opal's signature."

"All the Koboi instruments were destroyed," Holly said. "We thought that it was too risky to have her tools around us, things that could be bugged."

Artemis shrugged. "That may be, but it doesn't change the facts. This missile was designed by Opal Koboi." He studied the diagram. "It _is_ a newer model, though. There are two possibilities here," he said. "One is that someone has stolen old Koboi designs and changed them. This missile is, in fact, much more efficient. However, as Opal's signature ideas of weaponry are encrypted inside and out, I must presume that this was made by Opal herself."

Holly felt a cold chill run down her back. About a month ago, Artemis had discovered that his mother was grievously ill with a fairy disease called Spelltropy. The disease killed in a week, causing all the organs to fail. The only cure lie in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. The only problem was, the lemur was extinct due to a business deal Artemis had made at ten years old. With the help of the demon warlock N°1, Holly and Artemis had traveled back in time and saved the lemur. In the process, the Opal Koboi of that time had traveled into the present. So now there were two power hungry maniacs in the world. The Opal from the present was safely locked away underground in Atlantis. The other Opal had escaped after the explosion from a Kraken. In the past month they had been unable to find Opal, and there had been no activity on her part.

"Our Opal is locked underground," Foaly said, "and lemur happy Opal hasn't been heard from. She's probably dead." No one believed it.

"The missile tells a different story," Artemis pointed out. "Our Opal is incapable of making a missile in her sell. That leaves only one other option. Opal number two is active again."

"Why did she try to hit me with a missile?" Holly asked.

Artemis leaned forward, his fingers steepled. "It is possible that she is simply looking for revenge. This Opal has had no experience with us other than the incident with the lemur. She does not know that we are capable of avoiding her, though I doubt that she underestimates us so far as to believe that killing us will be easy. It is also possible that she has made a new plan to take over the world and/or destroy the planet, and has decided that she had best remove us. Actually not a bad idea," he muttered. "We do get in her way quite often."

Holly grimaced. "I would really like to remove her from the planet. Every time I think we've taken care of her, she comes back with a vengeance," she complained.

Artemis couldn't but agree. Opal Koboi had been his enemy almost as long as he'd known Holly and Foaly. The evil pixy was cold and ruthless, and would stop at nothing in her search for power. Artemis had deemed her capable of anything, and he had nearly lost his life by her hands more than enough times. Opal Koboi was a genius and a murderer, a vicious combination. A person to fear.

Foaly ran a hand across his long face. "Well, what do we do? We searched high and low. Never found a trace."

"I should know," Holly agreed. "I was the one looking for her. Commander Vinyaya only just terminated the search."

Artemis already knew this (more secret files that he wasn't supposed to see), but he decided that it was best not to mention anything while Foaly was listening in. Instead he said, "Nothing, right now. All of us should be on guard, and alert the LEP. Make sure that our Koboi is secure."

Foaly nodded and left the screen. Back at the Haven, he sent the orders to the main LEP units, as well as an inquiry about their Opal in Atlantis. May as well have everyone on guard.

Holly fiddled with her helmet. "I should get going. I'm sure I have something to do in Haven."

Artemis shut down his computer, storing the missile blueprints in a tight security file. Following the elf back to the kitchen, he thought over the new problem. Was it possible that Opal knew about his plans? Did she know about the vial? How could she? Was she working with someone who also knew? Artemis pushed away his uncertainties. _Everything will be fine,_ he thought sternly._ No one knows about the magic. Least of all Opal._

Holly stood by the door and watched Artemis, her hazel eye and his blue eye following his movements. He picked up the cup of tea, now cold, and poured it slowly down the sink.He looked nervous and he was still pale. _Worried_, she decided, _but who wouldn't be with Opal on the loose?_ He fumbled with teacup as he set it down, his usual calm and self assurance not surfacing. He glanced up at her and pulled himself together.

"You should really come and visit sometime when there is not some horrible crisis. I feel like we're business partners," he said with a vampire smile.

"We _are_ business partners," she reminded him. Then she amended, "I'll try, alright? I've just been busy…"

He shrugged. "To be entirely honest, so have I. I am working on certain projects that require an amount of attention…" _Stop there,_ he warned himself. Giving away information could be fatal, no matter who he gave it to. He trusted Holly with his life - and she had saved it multiple times over - but he didn't trust anyone who might be listening in. The secret had to remain his, and only his. If Opal Koboi knew what he had… Artemis suppressed a shudder at the thought.

Holly nodded in understanding but thankfully didn't ask questions. "Well," she said lightly, "I'll just be off now… See you later, Artemis."

"Hopefully on better visiting terms," he agreed. She chuckled and vibrated into invisibility. The kitchen door opened and shut, and Artemis ran a hand through his hair. He picked up a new teacup and poured himself a fresh cup. He had given nothing away at all, so there was no reason to worry. Relax. Nothing could possibly go wrong…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Lilies and Lies

Butler had never been a hard sleeper. It came from intense training and a hard earned awareness of everything that happened in the Fowl household. So it was no shock when something woke him in the middle of the night. He sat up in bed, listening for the cause of the disturbance. As Artemis' bodyguard, he had a room right next to the boy. From the bedroom next door, he heard Artemis speaking, but no one spoke back. Must be on the phone. Butler glanced at the clock. One the phone… at 3 A.M. He stood slowly and silently, debating on whether he should listen in. Finally his protective nature won out. Sometimes Master Fowl failed to set good limits for himself. It was Butler's job to see the danger before it fell on them.

He pressed his ear against the wall to listen.

On the other side, Artemis sat at his desk, his phone pressed carefully between his shoulder and his ear. He listened to the voice on the phone with growing impatience, drumming his fingers on the desk in front of him.

It was a call from an elf in LEP. He talked quickly and sounded worried and scared. "Hello, Master Fowl. I was, uh, ordered to make this call by the Commander. She told be that you might want to come down, seeing as it involved Captain Short…"

Artemis' fingers stopped drumming. He could feel a piece of bad news coming. "What about Captain Short?" he asked coldly.

"Well, ah, you see sir, she's been injured. Hadn't performed the Ritual lately. She was on patrol near an area with a lot of goblin activity. They caught one stealing something from a store and moved to intervene, but the goblin had others with him. Two were contained, but Captain Short had to go after the last one and ran into a group of them. She's badly hurt, and there aren't any warlocks in the area… We don't know how long she can hold on. The Commander knew about your particular talents and wondered if you might have some way to help."

Artemis was frozen. How could this happen? Holly was experienced. She knew how to fight, and was the best shot Artemis knew. How could she let herself be bettered by goblins?

The answer flashed across his mind. _Opal_.

Artemis spoke stiffly into the receiver. "You know where I live. Have a shuttle ready in fifteen minutes." Then he snapped the phone shut. He was dressed in little under two minutes, his jacket flapping around him as he raced past Butler, who had just come out of his room. Artemis supposed that he'd been listening the whole time.

"Artemis, where are we going?" he asked, following his young charge outside. He was already dressed as well, having heard Artemis request a shuttle.

"Holly has been fatally wounded," Artemis called back, the words burning his throat. "I have to go to Haven and see what I can do.

Butler nodded and followed Artemis to the garage. He was leaving the house unguarded, but there was no one to watch out for. Artemis's father was still in Germany, and his mother was visiting a couple of old friends. The younger Fowls were at a babysitter's house until Angeline was done, as the woman claimed that she didn't want the responsibility on her oldest son.

"Knowing you, you'll probably have to leave in the middle of the night at a moment's notice," she had told him. "Then where would the twins be?"

_How right you were, Mother._

The twenty minute drive to the shuttle was agonizing. Artemis was trapped into imagining all kinds of gruesome wounds that Holly could be suffering from. He shuddered and forced himself to stare ahead and not think while Butler drove them to the shuttle port.

The elf from the phone was waiting for him. "Right in here, sir," he said, stumbling over his words as he opened the shuttle. Artemis climbed inside and Butler followed. They were cramped inside, due to Butler's large physical presence, but they survived the bumpy, grueling ride to the underground. Barely.

Artemis jumped out of the shuttle, Butler following a little more slowly. The boy looked back at the nervous elf in the shuttle. "Where?" he asked sharply.

"Just head to the police plaza," he said, climbing out of the shuttle. "It's down this street a ways."

Artemis nodded his thanks and set off quickly down the street. No one was out; who would be at three in the morning? He saw the lights of the Police Plaza ahead, and his heart clenched. Holly was there, wounded and, according to the LEP agent, possibly dying… He shook his head. She would live. Holly was strong, strong enough to wait for the warlocks who could heal her.

He raced into the Plaza, where there were more people, LEP on duty. They raised their guns to train them on him. He raised his hands in front of him, and Butler did the same. A universal message: We are weaponless, we mean no harm.

One of the LEP suddenly uttered a little sound of exclamation and stepped forward. "Artemis?" a familiar voice asked. "Artemis, what are you doing here?" The visor came up.

The LEP who had stepped forward was none other than Holly Short.

Artemis felt his knees go weak with relief. Holly was obviously alive and well. He could see nothing wrong with her. She just looked at him, a confused expression clouding her face. He tried to explain. "I got a call," he told her. "A LEP agent told me that you'd been patrolling in an area with high goblin activity, and that you'd been injured." The other LEP officers were wandering away, still throwing the humans dirty looks. "They said that you were too low on magic to heal yourself, and that no warlocks were nearby." He blushed slightly. "I was… concerned."

Holly held up a finger and Artemis watched a small spark leap off of the end. "I'm fine on magic. I competed the Ritual just a few days ago. And besides that, there hasn't _been_ any high goblin activity. Most of it's died down since the revolution. No major activity in a while." She held out her arms to demonstrate. "I'm fine."

Artemis was speechless. It seemed that the LEP agent that had phoned him and brought him here had been blatantly lying. As happy as he was that Holly was alright, he had to wonder why a LEP fairy had wanted him down in the Haven so badly. "I thought that maybe Opal had gotten you," he admitted. "It seemed to me that it would take a little more than a rouge group of goblins the finish you off, honestly."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she said as a form of agreement. "So, if I'm living - which I obviously am - then why would someone sell you that story?" she asked.

"To get us into the Haven for some reason?" Butler suggested.

Artemis felt his stomach drop. "Or to get us away from the Manor."

No. It was impossible. How could anyone have discovered? The boy turned around and raced back to the shuttle port. Holly and Butler followed him, both equally unnerved by the idea that someone had wanted Artemis and Butler away from the house. And though Butler looked concerned, Holly noted, Artemis seemed positively frantic.

"Holly, can you get us back to the surface?" Artemis asked, jumping into the abandoned shuttle and strapping himself in quickly. Holly crawled into the pilot's seat.

"Of course," she muttered, engaging the shuttle. After another bone jarring ride, they were back to the surface.

Butler climbed into the front seat of the car while Artemis told Holly, "Wait here, please. I will call you if I need your assistance." And then he ran to the car, jumped in, and the two drove away.

Holly stared after them. _Weird day_, she thought, and sat down to wait.

The lights of Fowl Manor were just as they'd left them. Butler and Artemis's lights were on, no others. That meant nothing, Artemis knew. It only meant that, if someone was in or had been in the house, they were not total idiots.

He leapt from the passenger seat and took the stairs up to his room two at a time. _Please, please, please, please, please don't let this be what I think it is…_ he thought desperately.

He flung open the door to his room. Everything was just where he'd left it, accept now he could detect the faintest hint of lilies. _Odd_, he thought. What kind of intruder wore perfume? He peered into the corners of the room, searching for heat waves that would mark invisible fairies. Finding none, he ran over to the hidden safe, whipping through the locks in seconds. Finally he pulled the last door back.

There was nothing inside.

Artemis had to force himself to breath.

_Think, _he told himself furiously._ Who have you talked to about this? No one. Who had seen you with this? No one, unless there were hidden fairies in the room, which there were not. You have no files about this that anyone could hack into. So, how is the vial gone?_

It was impossible. He ran a hand through his hair in agitation. Impossible. He had moved the vial because they had discovered where it was. To protect it. And yet now it was gone, surely in the hands of those who could use it for the worst purposes. They'd wanted it bad enough.

After all, inverse magic was hard to come by.

Artemis shut the safe slowly, his mind whirling. They must have shown up on the cameras. They must have. He could find them, and track them down. Get the magic back…

It was then that he heard the click of the door shutting.

He flipped around, but no one was there. The room was utterly empty but for himself. He focused his eyes on section of the wall, watching for movement. There! By the foot of the bed. A slight shimmer. He switched his gaze to the hidden fairy.

A light laugh rang through the room, and the fairy switched off her shield. Artemis stared into the grinning face of Opal Koboi, not surprised in the least.

"Hello, Fowl," she said, her tiny teeth clenching. Her gaze was filled with absolute hate. The deranged pixy stood up, walking around the room, examining everything. Artemis followed her movements, totally still. "I must thank you for removing that lovely little trinket from its hiding place," she drawled. "I could never have found it without you."

Artemis narrowed his gaze. "You don't know what inverted magic can do, Opal," he said. "Give it back. I have it safe here. It's too dangerous, even for you."

The pixy sneered. "You got in my way once, Mud Boy, you won't again. I have already dealt with the bodyguard."

Artemis swallowed. "You killed him?"

She flapped a hand. "I did that once already. It didn't turn out so well. I've put a heavy sedative on him. He'll wake up in a few hours, but he will be too late to meddle with my plans."

Artemis contained a sigh of relief. Butler was alive, at least. "Give the spark to me, Opal. It could destroy you. It's too much power." He felt like he was grasping at straws, even though what he said was true. The amount of power in the vial was astronomical. It would destroy the pixy before she ever got to use it.

Opal laughed. "It's not for me, you sniveling human fool. I will be granted enough power if I secure this spark." She twirled the vial. "Which I have."

_Opal Koboi was working for someone?_

Artemis couldn't believe it.

He was trying to form another question when Opal pulled out the gun. He froze, aware that Opal would not hesitate to shoot him. Undoubtedly the death would be a slow and painful one. The gun was, shockingly, one of his own models. _She must have taken it from the weapon room_, he thought. It was small and slim, with a flap on the side for inserting some long object. Not bullets. Artemis had developed these guns some time back, to sell to snipers. The objects that went into these guns were loaded with poison.

Opal ran her thumb down the side of the gun. "I love this," she confided to him. "I much prefer slow acting poisons to quick deaths. I believe that the poison is also your own concoction? It was a brilliant stroke of luck, finding it in your lab. Something labeled H5?"

Artemis fell against the wall. _My most successful poison_, he thought glumly. H5, as he had labeled it, was a little bit like Spelltropy, but it acted much faster. The poison spread through the blood stream, leaking into the vital organs and shutting them down. The first to go would be the lungs, and then the heart. Without oxygen pumping through it, the brain would die before the poison even reached it. The poison terminated its host after fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes. It would have to do.

Opal smiled at him. "I was too hasty last time," she told him. "This time I made sure to plan. Hack into your systems, your cameras, your audio feeds. Find out where you would be, what you were doing. I already knew your weakness was that stupid elf girl. It was too easy to get you out of the house. Naturally I knew that you would quickly return, but then I would be waiting." She cocked the gun at him. "It will probably work fastest through the heart, don't you think?" Opal grinned and pulled the trigger.

Artemis dodged to the left, but the dart was too fast for him to evade. At least it didn't catch him in the heart. He pulled the cartridge from his shoulder, but it was already empty. He looked up as Opal disappeared from view.

"Bye, Arty," she said. "I hope that poison is painful. I have to catch up with a certain elf friend of yours, and then a pompous centaur that you know I can't stand. I'll look forward to killing them."

Then she was gone.

Artemis could feel the effects of the poison right away. It _was_ painful. His shoulder was on fire, and it was spreading quickly. He lunged for his phone, which was right where he'd left it before the idiotic trip to the underground. He fumbled with it for a moment before he could open it up. He sent a quick message to Holly, and then threw the phone down onto the bed.

Fifteen minutes, and he would need every one of them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Inverted Magic

Holly pulled up Artemis's message on her helmet's screen.

_Planned by Opal after all. Butler out. Please come quickly. Only have fifteen minutes. Less._

She couldn't fathom what he meant, but she activated her wings anyways. When Artemis started typing in phrases, it was time to move.

She jumped into the air, the shooting up at and angle to cover more distance. She spoke into her helmet. "Foaly, we have a situation and Fowl Manor," she said, gliding over an air current. Foaly replied instantly.

"Why is it always at Fowl Manor?" he asked. "Why not in Florida somewhere? Or Canada?"

Holly grimaced. "It does revolve around Artemis a lot, doesn't it."

In his own home in the Haven, Foaly spoke to Holly through a head set until he reached his private computer. Once there, he opened Holly's mail and found Artemis's message. He read it through and spoke again. "Fifteen minutes? How many have passed since he sent it?"

"One, two at the most," she replied. "It shouldn't take me long to get to the Manor. As long as nothing goes wrong."

And then, of course, something went wrong. Just when Fowl Manor came into sight, Holly's suit completely shut down. No vision, no sound, no cushioning. And certainly no flight.

After sending the message to Holly, Artemis lurched toward the door. It was locked. _Naturally,_ Artemis thought, muttering a curse. He used an old trick of Butler's to open it. Grabbing a prototype gun off of his worktable - a prototype, but a working one - he blasted the door open. It took him three tries before he managed to hit the lock. It didn't help that his hand was in a furnace. His face felt hot and clammy, and his left arm was burning. How long had it been? He'd lost track of the time. Two, three minutes?

Butler was nowhere to be seen, but he was unconscious anyways and would be of no help. Holly might get here too late. He had to save himself. _Focus. You have the antidote. It's downstairs, in the chem. labs. _Probably where Opal had gotten the poison in the first place.

He stumbled along the second floor, finally reaching the stairs. The pain was spreading across his chest, into his right arm. It wouldn't reach his legs; it would focus around his lungs, heart and brain. White stars exploded behind his eyes, and he couldn't think straight. The world spun.

The stairs were grueling, taking up a precious five minutes. He pulled himself down them one agonizing step at a time. By the time he reached the stairs, he was coughing blood. His chest rattled as he sucked air into failing lungs. Five minutes left. It would take fairy magic to save him now, but it wouldn't work unless he reached the antidote in time.

The ground floor of the Fowl house was extensive; it held the kitchen, the dinning room, the weapons gallery, the parlor, and the huge living room. For the public, at least. For the Fowl family, it also held a chemical lab station. It could be found in the back of the house, and it was protected by various locks and pass codes. It was a good ways away from Artemis, but it was his only chance.

He pulled himself along, using the walls, furniture, anything for support. The chairs were tempting… he could just lie down and give up, fall asleep and leave the problem to someone else. _No,_ he thought grimly. _I must live. I am the only one who knows about the inverted spark._

He turned a corner and could finally see the door to the chemical lab. He took a step forward, but his knees suddenly gave out. He collapsed, unable to stand, crawling forward on his hands and knees. He reached the door and pulled himself up to put in the code. His hand shook, hard. His own heartbeat sounded faint in his ears. His breath came in gasps, farther and farther between. The locks inside the door fell into place; it swung open. With the last of his strength, Artemis stumbled into the room. Past tables and test tubes and syringes, to the small refrigerated safe in the back. He reached it by crawling the last few feet. He reached up, plugged in the code, and pulled the door open. The antidote was on the second row from the top - right next to the poison. Artemis felt his hand fall back as he became suddenly preoccupied with the fact that he couldn't breath. His lungs had collapsed. His heartbeat faltered.

_No!_ he shouted at himself through the fog that descended on his mind. _No. So close. Can't stop now. _He tried to pull himself up, but simply fell back again. _Even if Holly could get here in time, her magic won't work against the poison without the antidote! Come on!_

But he couldn't move. He flickered in and out of consciousness, and thought, _This is the end._

And then, _Opal _would_ wear lily scented perfume while murdering someone._

Holly was used to injuries. Being in the LEP, not to mention working with Artemis Fowl, she had received her fair number of bruising and fatalities, all healed by fairy magic. So crashing through the trees around Fowl Manor wasn't exactly a life altering experience, though it did concern her just a bit.

"Foaly!" she shouted into the helmet as she plummeted. No response. Her gear was dead, somehow. Artemis has said that the whole thing was planned by Opal. Surely this was her doing.

Holly twisted in the air so the her feet pointed towards the trees. The first branch she hit broke instantly, slowing her fall almost none. As she neared the ground, they held up a little longer, until she hit with a bruising but not bone crushing impact.

Winded and aching, Holly stumbled to her feet. She'd hit her left arm against a large tree branch, and it felt very broken. Her magic crackled into life, erasing the bruises and healing a head injury. Her left arm made a small snap as the bone fell back into place and healed itself. A cut above her left eye sealed as her suit came back to life.

Foaly was frantic. "Holly? Holls! D'Arvit, respond!"

"I'm here, Foaly, and alright," she said. "The trees cushioned my fall. My suit shut down. What happened?"

"No idea," he replied, running scan after scan. "Opal, probably."

"No doubt. Everything operational now?" she asked, flexing her shoulders. Her wings started buzzing, and she lifted a bit off the ground. How much time did she have left? Probably ten minutes had passed now, at least. What if something had happened to Artemis?

"Everything looks fine. Careful, Holly."

"Aren't I always?" she asked, shooting above the treetops and making a beeline towards Fowl Manor. She flew through an open window and landed lightly on the floor.

"Artemis?" she called, her light voice ringing through the halls. She was on the ground floor, and no one was in sight. "Artemis! Foaly, help me out here."

"Can do," Foaly said, hacking into the Fowl camera system. He found the fourteen year old sprawled on the floor in the chemical lab. "He's in the chemical lab and not looking good," Foaly said, urgency in every word. Holly heard his hooves clop in the background. Her friend was not happy about what he'd found. "Take the door in front of you and then take a left. He's -" Then Holly's suit shut down again. She swore and ripped off her helmet in frustration, took the left he'd mentioned, and stopped in her tracks.

Artemis was face down on the floor, paler than she'd ever seen him. She ran to him and fell beside his prone form, turning him over. A trail of blood fell from the corner of his mouth. She rested her shaking fingers over his lips, and felt no telltale brush of air from his breath.

_No. Not again._

She shoved her fingers under his throat, feeling desperately for a pulse. At first she felt nothing, and despaired. And then, a small flutter. A heartbeat, however faint. She reached inside herself and pulled her magic. Tears flowed down her face. It might be too late… The magic jumped from her fingers and into Artemis Fowl.

Blue sparks burrowed under his skin, leaving the skin glimmering. Having no effect. She poured more in. "Heal…" she muttered. "D'Arvit, heal!"

Finally the boy's eyes fluttered. He took a choked gasp of air and shoved her hand away. "No," he coughed. "Antidote. Then heal. Second row from the top. Last syringe…" Then he fell back, his air gone. She caught his head before it hit the floor and looked up at the open cabinet. Setting Artemis's head back on the floor, she jumped to her feet. The second row from the top, last syringe. Holly peered up at the second row.

There were, of course two "last" syringes. They were arranged in rows. Obviously Artemis meant the syringe on the end of the row, but the thing about a row is that it has two ends. Holly wavered, unsure. Finally, saying a prayer, she picked the one on the right, turned back to her dying friend, and shoved it into his arm, slamming the liquid inside home.

No reaction. She waited a few seconds and then shoved her hands onto his chest, throwing all of her magic into the motion. _"Heal,"_ she whispered, choking on tears.

_Now_ it worked properly. Blue fire leapt from her hands into his body. The poison, immune to fairy magic, was burnt out by the antidote as the magic healed the damage done. Artemis convulsed on the floor, the whites of his eyes showing. He bucked and twisted as the magic brought him violently away from the edge of death. His lungs healed and his heart began to beat steadily in his chest once more. Finally his eyes flew open and he drew in a great, heaving gasp.

Holly held his head while he choked in more air. _I've never appreciated air so much, _Artemis thought as his breathing settled,_ and I never want to appreciate it this much again._

He looked up at Holly. "You made it," he gasped. "I didn't think you would."

"I _was_ a little held up," she admitted. "Sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"Don't be," he answered, gratification carrying through every word. "You've saved my life yet again. I'm not sure where this puts us. We should keep better track. I feel distinctly off kilter when we're so unbalanced. I'll have to save your life more." Holly laughed wetly. "I'm going to have a heart attack if you do that to me again, Fowl," she accused. "You die to often."

Artemis couldn't but agree. He heaved himself into a sitting position, closing his eyes until the dizziness faded. He was sore and fatigued, but alive. So the secret was as well. Holly's mismatched eyes carried concern, but her magic was used up. She could do nothing more. "Artemis, what were you poisoned with?" she asked.

The boy shivered. "It was something I created a long time ago," he explained slowly. "Before I was infected with your morals. When I discovered the fairy ability to heal, I decided that I would create a poison that was unaffected by it. It was incredibly successful. While a fairy could heal the damage done, it would only last a minute before the poison continued to inflict damage. A fairy would use up their magic in the fight to survive. Without magic, it takes fifteen minutes to act. With magic, it can last up to thirty. I created an antidote, which could be used to counter the poison. With the poison gone, the magic could heal normally. I locked the poison away and I have never used it." He rubbed his shoulder. "Opal apparently found it fascinating. I'm surprised that she didn't stay around to watch."

Holly brushed some sweaty hair from his forehead. "Don't make lethal poisons," she chided. "It's not right."

He grinned tiredly. "When have I ever been concerned by ethics?" He stumbled to his feet, using a table as a support. "I gather that I have some explaining to do. Let's go to the dinning room. It has a screen, so Foaly can listen in."

Using Holly's help, Artemis managed to make his way into the dinning room. Foaly, who had been watching them through the Fowl's security system, flashed onto the screen.

"Explain, Mud Boy," he said grimly.

"Good to see you too, Foaly," Artemis muttered. "Before you begin your assault on my character, let me thank you for your concern on behalf of my wellbeing."

"Sorry, Arty," Foaly amended. Then, not one to drop the point in question, he said, "_Now_ explain."

Artemis sat at the table and rested his hands flat on the hard surface, considering his next words. Finally he asked, "How much do you know about inverted magic?"

Holly looked confused, but Foaly replied nervously, "It's an old bedtime story, nothing more."

Artemis smirked. "Come now, let's be honest. We must come to an agreement or nothing will come of this little meeting."

Foaly sighed. "Fine, Mud Boy. Inverse magic was a force created by demon warlocks before Hybras was put into Limbo and the race almost died out. Only the most powerful warlocks could create it, using the Old Gnomish speech. Of course, only evil warlocks would create inverse magic, so it was very rare, as evil warlocks are hard to come by. If you look at our own N°1, you'll understand what I mean."

Artemis and Holly both nodded. N°1 was known widely for his friendly disposition. He loved absolutely everyone and everything, without any exceptions. One of the most powerful demon warlocks to ever live, it was vital that he have that good attitude. Most demon warlocks did, else the world would be in flames before you could blink. Most average demons were particularly vicious, but warlocks tended to stray towards nonviolence. Every once and a while, though, a demon warlock would appear who was as violent as the rest of them. It usually took intense therapy and training to get them to turn around.

"Anyways," Foaly continued, "some of them were bad, back in the day, and wanted, naturally, more power. So, they created something called inverse magic. Humans today refer to it as black magic or the dark arts, because humans could sometimes contract residual magic from demons using it. Only demon warlocks with very strong power could create this, using their own magic to contain it. One spark of inverse magic is equivalent to the power that one hundred fairies would experience in their entire lifetime. If a fairy tried to use the power, they would be destroyed, almost instantly." He grimaced. "They burn from the inside out. Spontaneous combustion. Not a pretty sight, I'm sure."

Artemis nodded. "Thank you. You had no files on the topic, so I was unsure of how much you knew on the subject." He glanced at Holly. "You have heard of it before now, have you not?"

Holly shrugged. "Only, as Foaly said, in bedtime stories. I didn't know it was a real thing."

"If only," Artemis murmured. "No, the inverse magic is very real. There is only one spark left on this earth, and it has been carefully guarded since the time of the demon warlocks. Its latest hideout I discovered on behalf of Foaly and a man named Professor Alexander Hoffthern, I man that I suggest you find and mind wipe. He knows a little too much about the inverted magic. He never guessed at where it might be, but he knows about the People and Haven. He has done very extensive research, which I found invaluable, as I needed to do nothing but make a few conclusions. Based on a file I discovered in Foaly's database, I discovered where the spark was being kept."

Foaly groaned. "Which file, Mud Boy?"

"It was titled, I believe, as _The Inverse Pyramid_."

Foaly slammed his head down on the desk. "You couldn't leave me an ounce of privacy?"

"Don't be concerned. I stay away from your love letters," Artemis said wickedly.

Holly jumped in to save her friend from further tyranny. "So the spark was in the Louvre? The Inverse Pyramid? Wouldn't someone have noticed? It is a little transparent."

Artemis shook his head. "Not _La Pyramide Inversée._ The spark was located inside a very small pyramid sitting underneath the point of the Inverse Pyramid. Using a silver rod inscribed with Old Gnomish runes -" Foaly slammed his head against the desk again at this "- I opened the pyramid, which is hallow inside."

"And took the inverted magic?" Foaly yelped. "Why? That is just like you, Fowl," he began, starting the rant on the boy's character, but Artemis cut in.

"Yes, I did take the spark. But not for my own purposes," he shot back calmly. "I discovered that there were certain others who would be very interested in the spark, since the arrival of N°1."

"Who?" Holly asked.

"A group of fairies that call themselves the Dark Keepers."

Foaly choked. "The Keepers have been gone for centuries, ever since the disappearance of Hybras."

"And now the demons are back," Artemis countered. "The Keepers were never gone, Foaly. They were simply waiting. They have always kept tabs on the inverted magic, waiting for the demons to come back so that they could claim it."

Holly shivered. "And N°1?"

"N°1's magic level is almost exactly equal to the level of the spark. Maybe a little more, which means he would not be totally corrupted by it. The point is, the Keepers are very interesting in merging him with the spark. They will have a weapon to rival any ever seen on this planet."

"So, you figured you'd sneak in and steal the inverted spark yourself," Foaly reasoned.

"Precisely," Artemis agreed. "I told no one of my plans and made no files. Everything about it was perfectly planned and secret. Not even Butler knows. I had to keep it that way. The Keepers have spies everywhere, and just because I trusted one person didn't mean that I trusted someone else they might tell. Even my own cameras. I have no cameras in my room, so the safe was hidden. I put cameras in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, but mainly as a decoy to whoever might have been watching me through them. I never suspected that they may have been one step ahead of me. Now I see that they must have already put cameras up near the Inverse Pyramid, and so knew that I had taken it. Most likely while I was at the Louvre, they put cameras in my own room." Artemis ran a hand through his hair and said, with more than a little shock, "They outwitted me. Now, I obviously know how. If Opal Koboi is working with them, then I would have been much more careful…" He rubbed his temples. "Not that it matters. The inverse magic is gone. We need to triple the guard on N°1. Don't talk to anyone about this, no matter how much you trust them. No one but Commander Vinyaya, understand?" he said sharply. Both nodded.

"This probably won't end well, Mud Boy," Foaly warned. "Technically, what you did was illegal. I don't oppose to it, as the LEP are generally a lot louder than you happen to be. I probably would have done the same. It doesn't matter, though. The Council is going to be upset, to say the least. You could find yourself a fugitive of the fairy law."

Artemis shrugged. "It's happened before."

Holly patted his arm. "We'll stand by you."

He smiled slightly. "Thank you, Holly." He sighed. "I have a strong feeling that this is not going to end well."

Holly grimaced. "With Opal, nothing ever ends well."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Important Phone Calls

"Foaly, why don't you brief the Commander?" Holly suggested. Foaly nodded and blinked off the screen, off to deliver orders and news to the people who needed to know.

Artemis rubbed his neck. "I should probably go and revive my fallen comrade. Opal made it clear that he would not be waking up for some hours, but I think that I could speed things along." He started to stand, but his knees collapsed and he fell back in the chair. "Hellfire," he muttered. Holly was by him in a second, her hands on his neck, ready to shoot her last drops of magic into his system. He pushed her hands away gently. "I'm alright, Holly. I'd forgotten about the side effect of the antidote."

She blinked, the flicking her fingers to get rid of the tingling the magic had left. "Side effect?"

He smiled sheepishly. "I was young and naive. The antidote works, but it leaves a lingering weakness that lasts for a few hours. For all intents and purposes, I should be asleep right now." He wanted to be asleep, that was for sure.

"Why aren't you then?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Stress, I suppose. I needed to tell you about the spark… And Butler still needs to be tended to." He pulled himself up, locking his knees to stay standing. Holly rolled her eyes and pushed him back down.

"Sometimes I would call you a moron, Arty, if I didn't know better. You rest. I'll help Butler."

Artemis shook his head stubbornly. "I have to help, Holly." He tried to push past her, but was too weak to do much. Still, he wouldn't give in.

Holly frowned, and then smiled. If he wouldn't cooperate, she would convince him. She called her last drops of magic into her eyes, ensuring that her words would be dipped in honey when she spoke. _Mesmer _was one of the oldest and simplest fairy magics. "But would_n't you just like to sleep? Just for a while."_

Artemis's eyes fluttered. "That's not fair…" he muttered.

Holly smiled and patted his head. "_Sure it is. Now sleep,"_ she ordered, her voice still loaded with _mesmer. _Finally the boy's eyes shut and his head fell back. Dead asleep. Holly let the magic fade, her grin fading. The full force of the situation hit her. If Artemis needed to be _mesmerized_ into sleeping after a big magical healing, obviously the situation was dire. She left the dinning room and went to look for Butler.

She found him in the weapon's room, a tranquilizer gun on the floor beside him. Judging from his position on the floor, he had not been the one using it. A small jolt of fairy magic brought him to.

The big man lashed out, wrapping his hand around her throat for an instant before realizing who she was. He left go instantly. "Holly?"

She rubbed her bruised windpipe. "Hello, Butler."

Butler sat up, ignoring his pounding temples. "The pixy, Opal…"

"Gone."

Butler grunted. "I guessed as much. Artemis?" he asked.

"Opal got to him before me and poisoned him, but he's fine now. He's in the dinning room, asleep," Holly answered.

Butler felt a wave of guilt. It was his job to protect Artemis, and he had failed. "She came up behind me, shielded," he explained. "Shot me in the neck with my own gun."

She picked it up and set it in its obvious place on the wall - the only area not occupied by a weapon already. "It's alright, Butler. You don't have to explain. Opal is notoriously sneaky."

That he knew. "How did you wake me up?" he asked.

She sighed. "The last of my magic. I'll need to complete the Ritual after this. If Opal's on the loose, I should be full at all times." She helped the man to his feet. "Let's go watch Artemis. I'm not comfortable leaving him alone, even here. To risky."

They went back to the dinning room. Butler moved Artemis to the living room couch, where he would stay for the next few hours. Holly sat on the floor in front of him, feeling drowsy herself. She watched her human friend. _He looks so peaceful in sleep_, she thought. _So… innocent._ Even though he was so far from that.

Holly sighed and watched as Butler fell asleep in another chair. The tranquilizer was still active, technically, and wouldn't be out of his system for some time. She fiddled with her suit, trying to get it to turn on. Finally she gave that up with a groan.

"_Mesmer_ is not a very effective way of putting one to sleep if one is determined enough," a voice remarked from above her.

Holly looked up at Artemis, who was glaring at her from the couch. Propped up on his elbow with his hair in disarray, his top shirt button undone, he looked less menacing than he could have. Still menacing, though. _It would be worse if he could stand_, Holly thought smugly. "Sorry about that," she said.

Artemis sat up slowly, swinging his legs off of the couch. "I'm sure that I deserved it, even if it was untimely." He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Butler. "Still tranquilized, I presume?"

The elf nodded. "I didn't have enough magic to fully wake him up. I used it all on you. In fact, I'd be off to complete the Ritual now, except that I know you'll draw trouble without me here." She paused and then added, "Well, whether I'm here or not, but I feel better about your safety when you're in my line of sight."

"Thank you for your confidence," he said, leaning over and picking up her discarded helmet from where it rested on the floor beside her. He peered at it, noticing that none of the lights were on. "Is your suit off?" he asked, confused. LEP suits were never off unless they physically took them off. Holly would never shut down her suit, particularly not after Opal had just broken into his house and shot him.

"Yes," she grumbled. "Foaly thinks Opal shut it down. That's why I was late; I was flying here and I lost control. I was quite a ways above the ground. It shut down again when I arrived."

Artemis studied the helmet carefully. Finally he pulled off a small, round object, exactly the same color as the helmet, from the section that rested over the base of the neck - the part that controlled all of the suit's functions, as well as it's power. When that was off, the helmet buzzed to life. Artemis tossed it to Holly and studied the small chip.

"What is it?" Holly asked, peering at it.

"Not sure," he said, turning it over. "I will need to run some scans to be certain, but I'd guess that it's some type of scrambler. No doubt fashioned by Opal." He pocketed it for later research.

In the chair across the room, Butler jerked awake. Finding himself asleep in the living room, he muttered a muted curse.

Holly had forgotten just how _much_ tranquilizer it would take to keep Butler knocked out for long. Of course the effects would already be leaving him. She stood. "I should get going, now that you'd got you bodyguard back," she said, patting Artemis's head as if he were four instead of fourteen. He scowled. "I need to complete the Ritual. Last night was a full moon, and the sun's not yet up, so I should be able to get enough to charge full up." She shoved her helmet back on her head. Her suit was fully functional, thanks to Artemis. "Bye, Arty. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone. Foaly'll watch the house. If anything happens, _call us first, _then act." She shielded and opened the door, snapping out her wings before taking to the air.

It was good to be in the sky again. Foaly's voice intruded on her thoughts. "I assume that our esteemed human friend fixed your gear?" he said, sarcasm layered onto every syllable.

"As a matter of fact, he did," she shot back. "Some kind of scrambling bug."

"I thought it might be that. Otherwise it would have to be an implanted virus in my system, and as we both know, that h as never happened. Except for once. But that wasn't my fault." Holly rolled her eyes.

"Of course not," she said, unconcerned. "I'm going to complete the Ritual. The usual site."

Holly's regular place to complete the Ritual was actual the first place she'd met Artemis Fowl. He'd been twelve years old at the time, and considerably less friendly than he was now. She shivered, remembering that day. Artemis hadn't been looking for _her_, specifically. He had only wanted a fairy to barter with. It could have been anyone. She had managed to get free and stop a troll from killing Butler - who had fought the troll and won, the only human ever to do so. The Fowl house has been blue rinsed, but Artemis had escaped it, evading the LEP like he would do so many times in the future. Though the memories associated with the place were not particularly happy, she now considered Artemis Fowl to be a positive rather than a negative force in her life.

The site was fairly close by, and it didn't take Holly long to reach it. She set down on the grass by the river, making sure to check the area for humans before taking off her shield. She plucked an acorn off of the ground and quickly competed the oldest fairy tradition, the magic restoring Ritual. She felt the magic fizz through her veins again as she buried her acorn and stood up, brushing her hands off.

"Foaly? I'm finished. Can you -" she cut off, hearing something. A quick scan of the area showed nothing, but that didn't mean anything, necessarily. She ran a different scan, this time seeking heat, and found two bodies nestled in the bushes just behind her. Fairy sized, not human sized. After the incident at the Fowl house, she was ready to take no chances. Careful not to show them that she knew they were there, she leaned back against the tree. She slid her wings out of their sheaths with a barely audible click, holding them tight against her back. Then, very suddenly, she leaped into the air, engaging her wings with airborne. A move Foaly told her people called the "Hollycopter".

The fairies behind her were taken by surprise, and their shields flickered and died. They raised their Nuetrino guns - _LEP weapons,_ Holly thought furiously - and fired a series of shots at her back. She evaded the first few and then shielded, her newly acquired magic eager for use. Out of sight, she made a considerably harder to hit target, until the two fairy's shielded as well, so that they could see her easily. By that time, she was a good distance away, out of ranger of their blasters.

Her heartbeat finally settled into a normal rate. She glanced back over her shoulder to see the two fairies arguing. One was a pixy, the other an elf. And both were obviously disappointed that their catch had gotten away.

Foaly decided to speak up. "Sorry, I left to get a glass of water. What's up?"

Holly laughed, actually amused by his untimely disappearance. "Oh, I just got attacked by two fairies with LEP weapons. No big deal."

She heard a choked splutter as Foaly spit out whatever he was drinking. "What?" he gasped.

"Two fairies. Elf and a pixy. I should have gone somewhere else, darn it. Of course Opal would know that my usual place to complete the Ritual was at that tree. D'Arvit, I feel like a bloody moron."

"They had LEP weapons?" Foaly asked incredulously.

"And suits," she confirmed. "I don't know where they got them, but the style was obvious."

Foaly sighed, the sound crackling over the microphone. "We've got to tighten up our security. Fowl's, too. If they're able to steal suits, they can do a lot more," her friend muttered. "I'm going to run a sweep, make sure everything is properly contained. Update some passwords, intensify some codes, that kind of thing."

"Make sure Artemis knows too, if he's not already doing it," she said, almost positive that he was.

In fact, he was at the very moment that they were speaking.

Artemis chewed on his bottom lip, staring at the computer screen as he changed his own passwords and codes. Everything he wrote was in a language that he had created himself. He had used it once before, for the access code on the C-Cube. No one had been able to break through it, so he recycled the language to use again. All new codes, and an overall self destruct. If anyone broke through, all of the files, no matter how important, would be burnt away by a virus that he imbedded deep in the system.

Finally convinced that his computer was impassible, he turned to the house security. Every inch of the Manor was covered, sparing the bedrooms and a secret pathway that only he knew. He sighed and shut off all of the cameras on the inside of the house, only leaving the outside monitors operating. If Opal could hack through them so easily, he needed them shut off. There was no easy way to block out cameras from hackers. Their feeds were easy to access, too easy. He'd done it enough times to know.

Once that was done, he ran a sweep over the house for any live electronics. Naturally he found thousands, so he narrowed the sweep to those only running in a range of frequencies; the frequencies used for small cameras. With his own turned off, it was relatively easy to find Opal's. He was shocked at their number. At least twenty sat on this floor alone, monitoring his bedroom, his parent's bedroom, Butler's room, the library, his office, his father's office, and a number of other rooms. They basically covered the entire house. Downloading the information off of the computer and onto his phone, Artemis spent the next two hours searching for the small devices, which were basically invisible.

Artemis couldn't but admire them. Made of a hard plastic that acted like Foaly's camfoil, the tiny cameras blended into their surroundings perfectly. The only way to discover that they were there was if the light happened to glint off of the miniature lens. Not something easy to achieve, Artemis soon discovered.

Once the house was completely devoid of all cameras and listening devices, Artemis sat down in his office. There was something he needed to do. A call needed to be made. He picked up the phone and dialed a number that would reach not a phone, but a fairy communication device that actually rested in the hands of the most powerful demon warlock in the world.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Unreliable Cameras

Actually, it rested in the hands of the second most powerful demon in the world, the first most powerful demon's teacher. The first most powerful demon, N°1, was in the habit of answering the device for anyone and everyone, whether they had meant to call or not. The answer to calls like that usually went something like this:

"Hello, this is N°1. Judging by your babble, you did not mean to call my number. I would guess that you are a little confused, and worried that I might be upset. However, there is no need to be concerned, because I would never get upset by such a small mistake. If you like, I will mind wipe you so that you can just forget the whole thing."

So, his teacher, Qwan, held onto his communication device and gave it to him when he felt that the person on the other line was safe, both for N°1 and from N°1.

When Artemis called, N°1 had just finished a lesson on opening dimensional portals and sending objects through to the other side - which was not to be confused with opening up a time rift. It was a completely different lesson, and infinitely more difficult. Qwan was, as usual, impressed by his pupil's power and eagerness to learn.

"Well done, N°1," he said, patting the grinning young demon on the shoulder as the red light faded from the markings on his forehead. "I'd say that you're ready to move on to live specimen. We just need to get that algae in…" As a young demon, N°1 wasn't quite ready to be transporting intelligent beings into other realms. So, they substituted.

Looking a little confused, N°1 asked, "Um, what is algae?"

Qwan was about to answer, but he heard the communication device ring with a message and held up a finger. Pulling out the small, round polymer phone, he pressed it to his ear. "Hello?"

Artemis Fowl's voice rang through the speaker. "Qwan? But this is… ah, no matter. Probably best that the information be delivered to you, anyways. Where are you now?" he asked.

Qwan's features twisted into confusion. "We're in the magic training center. Why? Has something happened?"

Artemis cleared his throat. "I have a strong reason to believe that N°1 may be in danger of the Keepers. I assume that you know what that means?"

Qwan's short tail flicked nervously. "Yes, I understand. The spark?"

"They have it. I am calling now to be sure that N°1 is under heavy guard. You know what could happen were the Keepers to obtain him."

"… Yes. I know of the consequences. It will not happen."

The Keepers had been around as long as inverted magic. They had started as a group of demon warlocks searching for inverted sparks. In some places, the sparks would occur naturally, through cosmic surges of dark matter. The demons found and retrieved these sparks, keeping them stored until a demon could be found with enough power to control them. The demons eventually found a way to create their own inverted magic in small enough amounts that they could control it. A keeper for a naturally inverted spark - like the one the Keepers had just obtained - was only found once. The power granted to the demon caused the last ice age.

"Good," Artemis said over the phone. "The Commander is tripling the guard, but I do not trust them to be thorough. Please keep your eyes and ears open."

"I will. Thank you for the warning." The line went dead. Qwan shut off the device, his heart hammering. N°1 looked up at him, confusion in his gargoyle features. He turned to the young demon with a gulp. "We need to get to the Police Plaza. Artemis Fowl tells me that we are in some kind of danger." He knew exactly what kind, but that would lead to all sorts of questions from the small demon that would only make things worse.

N°1 glanced off to the side, as if looking at someone. Qwan looked that way as well, but saw nothing. N°1 looked back up at him as if nothing had happened. "Okay," he said cheerfully. He started out of the building ahead of his teacher, who was still looking around the room in concern. If there were hidden fairies here, they were here illegally. Demon warlock secrets were kept under very strict… well, secrecy. Some of the magics could be used by other fairies or even humans. To prevent power from falling into the wrong hands, there were no cameras in the magic labs or training areas, and no one was allowed inside but N°1 and Qwan.

Qwan sent out a wave of power, searching for hidden fairies. While they could be shielded from sight, no one could hide from magic. Finding nothing, he gave a mental shrug and walked after his student.

In the corner of the room, covered in an impassible shield of demon magic, there sat a very remarkable creature. Her black hair was a sharp contrast to her light skin, the raven locks making her seem even paler. She was around fourteen years old, and, aside from her purple eyes, she looked a lot like Artemis Fowl, though considerably less pale, as she did not spend hours in front of a computer screen. The purple eyes, which now glowed as she controlled the flow of magic around her, were the only thing that physically set her apart from the human race. She looked like a human, walked like a human, talked like a human. A regular American girl.

The girl set off after N°1 and Qwan. N°1 knew that she was following them, but Qwan did not. In fact, N°1 was the only person on Earth who knew that she existed. She kept well behind the two demons, just in case Qwan decided to do an unexpected probe that she wasn't ready for. She had to remain hidden.

Through their own, personal connection of magic, she spoke to N°1 through her mind, into his. _What do you think happened?_ she asked him.

_I don't know,_ he replied, _but Artemis doesn't put out a warning for no reason. If he says that something is wrong, I believe him. _

_I'll trust you on that,_ she replied. _I don't know Artemis Fowl. Should I keep up? I have that feeling again._

N°1 shivered, hoping that Qwan wouldn't notice. The imp and the girl had discovered that they each had some ounce of premonition. A bad feeling, like a pair of eyes on the back of your neck or a bad taste in your mouth. He could feel it now, a tingling on the back of his horns and the tips of his fingers. _Me too,_ he replied. _Stay close until we get to the Police, please? _

She didn't really see what the point was; N°1 was infinitely more powerful than her. Yet she still said, _Of course._

_Thanks,_ he said, relaxing slightly. The young demon was always more at ease with his half human friend with him.

The girl kept to the shadows, making her shimmering form less visible. Like the fairies, she was vibrating at a high speed, to fast for the eyes to track. However, she also had another way of shielding, though it was harder to hold on to, more complex. Wrapping the air around her, she bent the light away from her figure, letting her other shield drop. This way, there was no shimmer. Nothing to tell someone that she was there.

_Why the warp shield?_ her demon friend asked._ Worried?_

_It's bad today,_ she said. _Something is going to happen. I want to be ready. _

He didn't look back at her, but he wanted to. This was one area that she was stronger in. She always knew when something was going to happen, and how bad it would be.

She followed the demons down the street, noting the fairies around them. Many were LEP, guarding Qwan and N°1 as they walked to safety. She shivered, feeling the warning flash inside her mind. A warning that came just when the bad event was going to happen. She looked across the road and into the shadows on the other side. A LEP fairy was there, coated in the shadows. His Nuetrino 3000 was out, and as she watched, he flicked it up and pointed it at N°1.

She reacted quickly, vaulting across the road and tackling the LEP. Not fast enough. The dart was released before she reached him, shooting into N°1's shoulder. Another dart from the other side of the street hit Qwan. The older demon ripped the small object out, falling to his knees. _It's fast_, she thought. _Too fast._ N°1 fell as well, yanking out the dart as he did. She could tell that he was trying to stay awake, felt his mind struggle into hers, holding her down with the sheer force of his power. She tried to struggle past him, but of course she could not.

_No!_ she shouted at him. _N°1, let me go! They're going to take you!_ The "LEP" fairies were running towards the fallen demons, magnetic cuffs in their wrists. They would chain the two demons as effectively as the human's iron link, or better.

_You can't come out into the open, _his mind practically shouted at her._ You know what would happen. If they see you here, they'll mind wipe you. We afford that. Remember the beginning._ She shivered, remembering the days of uncontrolled explosions and fires and earthquakes, things that came with uncontrolled power. She knew that her friend was right, but she hated it. He was drifting now, falling away from her. Whatever they'd put in the darts was strong. He was able to tell her one last thing before he drifted into darkness. The thought pushed past the dark waters descending on him. Just three words.

_Find Artemis Fowl._

Then he was lost.

She had to hold herself down while they carried N°1 and Qwan away. It was like physical pain, but even she couldn't overpower all of these fairies, particularly not with the weapons they had access to right now. So she stood in the empty street, totally invisible, with only a name to go on as she watched her only friend in the world be carried away.

Artemis was uneasy. Though his phone call to Qwan had settled some of his nerves, he couldn't help but feel that, despite all of his precautions, something would go wrong. _Though_, he thought with some chagrin, _it went wrong last time, even with all of my precautions. Why not go wrong again?_

Even Butler's calm presence wasn't enough to settle him. The large bodyguard sat on the couch, carefully taking apart and cleaning one of his guns. A Mark 23, a semi-automatic handgun that was one of Butler's favorites. Artemis stood and went back up to his study, thinking. He sat at his desk, his fingers running over the keys. On a hunch, he tapped into the LEP cameras that were situated all over Haven. He flipped through them, looking for N°1 and Qwan. They would be heading for the Police Plaza after his call. Qwan would be eager to have the imp in the relative safety of the LEP.

Of course, he couldn't find them. Life was always like that, really.

Artemis frowned. They could be in a blind spot, but it was not likely. The LEP were more careful that humans; blind spots in the Haven were few and far between. A small snake of worry coiled in his stomach. They weren't in the Haven.

He flipped through a few more cameras, and was stopped by a strange sight. Sitting at the base of a wall in a street near the Magical Training Center, there was a huddled shape. Intrigued, Artemis zoomed in, narrowing the focus of the camera on the dark figure. It was muddled, as if something were interfering with the image. He could still see the overall shape, though. It was a girl. A human girl.

In the middle of the biggest fairy city under the earth.

Artemis shot out of his seat. This was dangerous. How could a human have gotten into Haven undetected? It had never happened before. In fact, it was really very impossible, unless you could make yourself completely undetectable.

Yet the cameras were shooting the footage as he stood watching. He flicked through the other cameras that were showing the same footage, and all gave the same, unbelievable picture.

Artemis watched as the girl rubbed a hand across her face and took a shuddering breath. No doubt any human would be paralyzed with fear upon finding the hidden world. As long as they weren't Artemis Fowl, at least. She stood and pulled herself away from the wall. She started to walk away, but then she stopped suddenly as if remembering something. Frowning, she looked straight up at the camera.

Artemis felt a small chill run down his spine. Though he logically knew that it was impossible for the strange human to see him, it looked as if she was staring right at him. She blinked once in a very purposeful way, and then the camera shut off. No matter what he did, nothing would bring it back online. A horrible coincidence, the boy told himself. Or perhaps someone is looking out for her.

Whatever the reason, there was no time to waste. Artemis turned his ring - which was, in fact, a fairy communicator - and called Holly. She answered right away.

"What is it this time, Artemis?" she asked, clearly exasperated. "Are gunmen climbing the walls?"

"No, Holly, this time the crisis is with you," he answered smoothly. "I would check your cameras. Or rather, the last few minutes of feed from the cameras near the MTC. It seems that a little bird has wandered accidentally into a viper's nest…"

Actually, the vipers probably needed to be more concerned about the bird, who was not happy at all.

Kaslynn Moden was one of the most powerful people in the world. Sometimes she could be even more powerful than N°1. Mostly this was because no one knew she existed.

Not existing had some singular advantages. She was not on any records, fairy or human. She had many false names, but few people knew her real one. She could literally make herself invisible, but usually she didn't even have to do that. She was not someone that people looked at, despite her odd appearance. If people actually took the time to look at her, they always found her a bit unsettling, and found a reason to look away. She radiated power, like her demon friend, and it upset most humans.

Yet here she was, sitting in an open fairy street, and she'd let her shields fall away!

There had been multiple cameras in the street, but she had quickly sent out a power surge, turning them off and erasing their history. She'd only missed one, a camera on the other side of the street that had only just caught a glimpse of her. This was the camera that Holly would find, though she would only have the word of Artemis Fowl that it was not simply some very tall elf that she was looking at.

Kaslynn pulled the air around her, becoming invisible once more. Someone might have seen her on the cameras before they went out, and she had no way to erase minds like N°1 did, unless they got within ear shot. So she needed to get out.

Since she had gained her powers three years ago, Kaslynn had decided that her best power was floating. Not flying, though she would have loved to be able to fly, but simply floating above the ground. She used that skill now, simply stepping up into the air and walking up as if she were climbing stairs. When she was above the tops of the houses, she closed her eyes and found the beacon that she had left above ground. A small drop of her magic, contained in a diamond. Which now looked like amethyst, with all that raw power inside it. She had left it in a hole in a tree, where it was unlikely to be found. Using that to guide her, she used another of what N°1 called her "fancy tricks" - teleportation. In an instant, she was back in the human realm, intent on one goal; finding Artemis Fowl.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Traveling in Circles

Kaslynn pushed her way through the throngs that inevitably crowded the streets of Dublin. She wanted to go home and take a nice, long shower, eat everything in her house, and change into some new clothes. The shirt and jeans she was wearing at present felt stiff and sweaty and smelt like old socks.

Her Dublin apartment was in a quiet corner in Kimmage. Right now she was in Dublin City, which was about a ten minute drive from Dublin, or for her, an hour long walk. Instead of taking that particular route, past pedestrians who would undoubtedly ask why she was not in school, she decided to find a private place to teleport from.

The issue with teleportation was that you had to have an anchor of power to focus on. The only things that willingly accepted magic were precious stones. Any precious stone could work, but diamonds worked best. She would fill them with her magic, and then she would be able to trace them back and follow them to wherever they were placed. The purple diamond necklace bounced against her throat as she walked, radiating power. Each of her homes had a small trinket like the one that she constantly carried around, so that she would be able to find them instantly.

Finding a small alley between houses that would be suitable, she slipped inside and located her beacon, letting it pull her over the land and into her own home. She arrived instantly in one of her many kitchens.

Kaslynn's apartment was small, but clean. She spent most of her time here, because this was closest to N°1. It consisted of a kitchen, a small living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Simple, easy, only necessities. Just how she liked it.

Kaslynn didn't like things. Getting attached to objects was silly, she reasoned, when you might have to leave at a moment's notice. She had no T.V., only a small, new looking lap top that sat on the desk in her room - the largest room in the house. A few books lined her shelves, but most of them were just fiction that she could leave behind. All of her research was done on her computer. Her closet was full, but all of her closets were. She liked to have a quick change ready when she needed it. Her kitchen was piled with food - most of which wouldn't go bad. She could leave at any time, and nothing would change. She wouldn't need to take anything but her laptop and her backpack.

The backpack was the only thing that she would never leave behind. Not only was it from before she got into the crazy world of fairies and magic, but it contained a few precious things that she'd taken from her old house. A burnt picture of her parents and her younger sister and herself by Niagara Falls. Everyone was smiling at the camera and her sister, Amy, was laughing at something. She couldn't remember what it was. She couldn't even remember that trip very well; she'd only been six at the time, seven years ago. _Twelve years ago_, she reminded herself. _Not seven, twelve. _

The picture, a piece of her mother's favorite coffee cup, rounded and melted by the fire. That was all that had survived, besides the diamond necklace that she never took off. The bag was also filled with necessities for living on the road. A blanket, a change of clothes, a few cans of food, and a good pair of running shoes.

After taking a long, hot shower that fogged up the entire bathroom mirror, Kaslynn quickly fixed a can of Spaghettios - the kind without meat - and changed into fresh clothes while she ate them. Black shirt, jeans, soft soled flats. Then she sat on her bed, with the spoon hanging out of her mouth, and brought out her computer.

One of the first things she had bought when N°1 had given her three million dollars worth of fairy gold was a computer. It was basically a classic Mac laptop, but it had been… modified by fairies, as a special favor to N°1 a few months ago. It was now much faster, and it had much more information than any human computer.

Yet its fairy technology was not actually what made her computer special. When she had first started learning about magic and how to control it, she hadn't been very good at containing her own. When she had first touched the machine, a magical surge had gone into it and molded into its workings. Now it acted pretty much like a normal computer, but it had a little more of a personality.

"Mac?" she said. "Wake up, we've got work to do."

The computer hummed to life, and white type appeared on the black screen.

_Don't we always,_ it said.

"Don't sass me, you stupid piece of junk," she said, "or I'm going to toss you in a rubbish heap."

_Spare me._

"Just bring me the internet."

_As you wish, oh glorious one. _

Her screensaver appeared for a moment before her favorite internet browser popped up. The search bar filled with type.

_What is it this time? Planning another trip to Rome? Booking online tickets to Egypt?_

"No, it's business today," she said, ignoring her computer's sarcastic remarks on her frequent trips to other countries. "Run a search for Artemis Fowl."

_I don't feel like it._

"Now, Mac."

Grudgingly, the page changed to the search results. Luckily, there were no extra and meaningless things to wade through; Mac knew exactly what she was looking for. The page filled with links. She clicked through a few. Apparently, Artemis Fowl was an incredibly rich man who was invested heavily in environmental projects. He had millions of dollars going towards the production and development of eco-friendly cars and houses, solar panels, and the protection of endangered animals. He was married to Evangeline Fowl, and had three sons, two twins and one older boy her age. His name was also Artemis Fowl. Artemis Fowl II.

_Which one?_ Mac typed to her.

"I don't know. N°1 just told me to 'find Artemis Fowl', but he didn't say which one." She thought for a moment. "Run the search through the F files." The "F files" were simply all files and websites that were created and run by the fairy community.

_Can do,_ Mac replied, and immediately file after file appeared on her screen. Another plus of having a conscious being as a computer was that she never had to worry about passwords and codes. He automatically broke them for her, so she didn't have to deal with it.

There were too many files to look through, so she just asked, "Is it Artemis Fowl or Artemis Fowl II?"

_The second one. What now?_

"Can you find out where he lives?" she asked.

_Don't insult me. He lives in Fowl Manor. It's just a few miles from here. _

"Great!" she said, jumping off the bed and grabbed her cell phone - another device that was charged with her magic. "Can you give me the coordinates?"

_Insults!_ he said, giving them to her quickly.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving a hand. "See you later!"

She didn't wait to see his reply.

Holly stood next to Foaly as he viciously hacked away at his keyboard.

"Where did he say to look?" the centaur asked, his eyes focused on the screen.

"The MTC," she replied. "Apparently N°1 and Qwan were supposed to be leaving there to report to the Police Plaza, but they haven't shown up yet."  
"Instead, we have a human girl running around?" Foaly replied, bringing up the feed from those cameras as he linked to Fowl Manor. "There's no way."

Artemis appeared on the screen, busy typing away at one of his many computers. "Hello, Foaly, Holly," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"What's this about, Artemis?" Foaly asked. He was scanning all of the cameras in that area, but they weren't giving him anything. Just a couple of pixy kids playing around.

Artemis turned to face them. "Try the history."

Foaly accessed the memories of the cameras in that area, but they were all empty. "There is none."

"Exactly."

Holly sighed. "So someone erased our camera memory. Why? Someone was protecting this girl?"

"That, or she somehow managed to do it herself," Foaly said. "Which is unlikely."

"I agree," Artemis said, "but that is not the real problem. I found one camera across the street that caught a glimpse of her." He sent them a frozen image of the girl. "It is unclear, for some reason, but you can plainly see that it is human."

Foaly rubbed his chin. "Okay… so where is she now?"

"Not in Haven, unless she has camfoil on. I don't think that we're dealing with some innocent child. This person, whoever she is, obviously knows about the fairy world. Furthermore, she must have some ties to fairies. They must have let her in," Artemis explained. "These things are clear. The real question is, why was she here, and to what ends?"

"Could she been working with the Keepers?" Holly asked.

"It's possible," Artemis said. "In fact, it is incredibly likely, considering the fact that N°1 and Qwan are missing."

"They're what?" Foaly exclaimed.

"Missing," Artemis said again. "Gone. They're not in Haven. Somewhere in between leaving the MTC after I called them and the time when I saw the girl, they left, or were more likely taken from, the city."

"D'Arvit!" Holly muttered. "The most powerful warlock in the history of the world is snatched out right from under our noses."

"Do we know where the Black Keeper's den is?" Foaly asked.

Artemis tapped his chin with a pencil. "I have a few ideas. I know that they have bases spread out all over the globe, so that they can better keep record of the inverted sparks that appear. N°1 will be at one of them, or possibly a more secret location, though I do not believe that any exist. I know where most, if not all, of the bases are. The problem is, of course, determining which of their bases to attack. And then, attacking it at all. They tend to choose either places that are in the public eye, or places that are almost impossible to attack."

"So how do you propose we go about it?" Foaly asked, expecting that, as always, Artemis would have a plan. Or many plans.

He didn't disappoint them. "It is possible to break into their security systems, if one knows how to go about it," he said with a none too innocent smile. "I could work two fairies inside, but their discovery would be inevitable. It would be better if I could simply access their files and cameras to see whether they have N°1 and Qwan. Then, if they do, we could send the LEP fairies in a few at a time and take the place as quickly and quietly as possible." He shrugged. "Of course, we must still narrow down the field of search."

"And I assume that you have some way to go about this?" Holly relied, rolling her eyes.

Artemis hesitated. Then, as if the words physically pained him, he said, "Not particularly." Seeing their stunned looks, he shrugged apologetically. "They are incredibly skilled in the art of disappearing. There is no way to narrow down the search, other than to eliminate bases that are of smaller size and stature first. I'll have to break into their files before I can even begin to guess."

"So… why don't you start on that?" Foaly said with an impatient gesture. "The sooner we get N°1 back, the better."

"I'm already working on it," Artemis replied briskly. "My computer is breaking through the less complex viruses and codes as we speak. It will alert me when it is no longer capable of breaking the codes. At that point, I will take over. It shouldn't take me more than a few minutes, after the initial walls are down." He grimaced. "Distractions."

Foaly rolled his eyes. "I know. It can take hours just to break through them, just because there are so many!"

Holly could see where this was heading. "Okay, okay, we get it. You're both very smart, let's move on." She glanced up at Artemis. "So, once you break through, you can tell us where N°1 is?"

Artemis sighed. "We can only hope that they have records of where he is kept. If not, I will have to begin a more complex search. Digital information is the key. Without it, I have nothing to base my search on. We will have to use a guess and check method," he said, as if the idea were the most absolute hideous thing he could imagine. Artemis Fowl did not _guess and check_. "I'll leave as soon as I have an idea of where to go. After I inform you, of course," he added.

Foaly snorted. "Of course. You think you can do it, Mud Boy?"

"Are you suggesting that I can't?"  
"Never," Foaly scoffed.

"Good."

Two hours later, Artemis finished the last of his tea as he looked over the information that was presented before him. He tapped his keyboard a few times, and Foaly appeared on another screen.

"Anything?" he asked. Holly leaned around him in the background, anxious but excited.

"I have narrowed it down to three of their bases," Artemis said. "They do not actually use N°1's name, but I believe that a certain package mentioned numerous times is an alias for him. Based on information found here and my own analysis, there are only three places to look. One is the most likely, but the other two are almost equally suspected."  
"Well, what are they?" Holly asked after a moment.

Artemis pulled up a large, holographic map for them. Using the highly sensitive laser beams positioned around the room, he was able to tell the computer where his hands were and what he was doing with them. The map acted accordingly. Foaly looked slightly impressed.

"Lasers?" he asked. Artemis nodded but waved the comment away. He pointed to Europe and it expanded to show more detail. He continued to zoom in until he was hovering above Paris.

"I found the inverted spark at the Louvre in Paris, France," he said. "The Black Keepers also have a base there, which makes perfect sense. Anyone would want to keep track of their valuables. This is their main base, and I believe that it is the most likely of the three." He smiled almost ruefully. "Forgive me if I don't mention the other two. This connection could be intercepted, though I have taken precautions against it."

Foaly grimaced, conceding the point. "So, where is the first one? You've yet to tell us."

Artemis chuckled. "I thought that it would be obvious. The Keeper's base is in the catacombs of Paris."

Kaslynn took a taxi to Fowl Manor. She had to pay extra to get there, but it got the job done. The cab driver leaned over to speak with her as she got out.

"Careful around here," he said softly. "Word it they've got serious, high tech security all over the place."

Like she hadn't expected that. He was a genius, he had lots of money, he had been invested in a criminal empire, and he was the sometimes friend, sometimes enemy of the fairy People. How could he _not_ have tight security?

"Thanks for the warning," she replied brightly, handing him his money. He smiled and drove away, leaving her to the large, ordinate gates that marked the entrance to Fowl Manor. She sent a little shock through the system to open them, watching them silently swing aside. She pulled a warp shield around herself - who knew what the boy had discovered? He could possibly be able to see around a regular fairy shield. So she made herself invisible and stepped through the gates.

The house was huge, buried deep in the woods and covered with fancy technology to alert the inhabitance of any presence. Any presence but hers, of course. Kaslynn slinked along the drive, sticking to the shadows in case she lost concentration and the warp shield faltered. She avoided the front door, instead creeping around the side and finding an open window. There was no way to get to the window; Fowl Manor was a fortress. No handy plants or loose stones offered at way up. So she unclasped her necklace and lobbed it through the window, following it seconds later. She caught it before it hit the ground, so her entry was totally silent.

She was in some kind of study, but luckily there was no one there. The house was empty, and she didn't know when they would be home. She let her shield flicker and die. If someone saw her, it didn't really matter. There wasn't much a human could do to her if they could hear her voice.

Kaslynn walked slowly downstairs, admiring the architecture of the grand house. Art was a weakness for her; all art, any art, every kind of art. The Fowl house was a beautiful masterpiece, a perfect blend of old and new. She loved it, everything about it. Helping herself to fresh coffee in the kitchen and not even taking the time to feel guilty about it, she wondered if the boy the house was named for would be as good as the place itself.

The living room was tastefully furnished, and the chairs were all comfortable and easy to relax in. She let herself fold into one, sipping the coffee, which was excellent. A true American, there was nothing Kaslynn loved more than coffee. Aside from maybe iced coffee, which was much better.

Suddenly events caught up with her. Training with N°1 was usually hard enough without all of this drama. Kaslynn closed her eyes and drifted, waiting for Artemis Fowl to come home.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: A Secret Weapon, For Lack of Better Words

Kaslynn's eyes shot open, her purple lamps shining in the now dark room. Night had fallen; she could hear the crickets chirping outside as they serenaded the moon. The girl sat up quickly in the chair, watching for any movement. An invisible fairy wouldn't hide for long in her presence, and a human had even less of a chance. She scanned the room quickly and found nothing.

She breathed out slowly and stood. Her powers must have awakened her, warning her that something was coming. Hopefully it was the boy. If not… well, who else could it be? She sat in the chair in the dark and watched the door.

He did not disappoint. A few minutes later, Kaslynn felt another presence - two actually, or three - enter the house. She could tell who they were, vaguely. One was an elf woman, shielded while outside but visible now that she was indoors. The other was a huge man, easily twice her size and walking close behind a younger man, still a teen around her own age, maybe a year older. Around fifteen, maybe, while she had only just turned fourteen.

Artemis Fowl, she guessed. She heard him bid the fairy, Holly, goodbye and tell the large man, Butler to go upstairs and check the cameras. A slight smile twitched onto her lips. Then the boy came to her, like he knew she'd been there the entire time.

Her first glimpse of him was a dark one. The light from the hallway behind him cast his features into shadow even as she knew her position was doing the same to her own face. She saw his teeth flash in the dim light, his incisors glistening for a moment in the half light. He leaned easily against the doorframe, a dark shadow seemingly without body.

"So, you've found me," he said, his voice cold and yet amused. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long."

She gave her own smile, even though she was chilled. He'd been expecting her? "Not too long, I'm sure. I seem to have lost track of the time," she said, matching his tone of voice, steely and formal.

"I'm sure you must be wondering how I could know that you would be arriving here tonight," he said, still smiling as he walked into the room and sat, the lights coming on slowly as he did so. Her edges shimmered as she debated on invisibility and discarded the idea. In moments she could see him more clearly, and she was startled by their resemblance. The black hair was exactly the right color, and his incredibly bright blue eyes were the exact same color as hers had been before they'd changed. She'd never found a color like it, until now. Even their skin tone was the same, pale and almost ghostly. Kaslynn controlled her surprise with practiced ease, watching his own reaction to her.

Only a moment, an instant of shock, and then the calm mask of evasive reason resumed control. He continued to speak. "I keep tabs on any search done through any files or websites in the world that refers to myself of my family. Even through the LEP files, which are generally veiled to the public." He watched her carefully to see if his mention of the LEP would surprise her. Kaslynn contained a smile; of course she wasn't surprised. This boy was supposed to know about the LEP. That was why she needed him. "So, naturally, when you searched for me from your apartment in Kimmage, it showed up on my computer. Normally I wouldn't be so concerned, accept that it appeared that you hacked into the LEP files and proceeded to open every file there _in the space of 1.59 seconds._" He gazed at her with one eyebrow raised. "Accounting for the number of files, that would be impossible for most supercomputers, human or fairy made. So, I listened in on your audio, and found that you were speaking to someone - I'm not sure who - and asking for coordinates to my home. And so, I automatically assumed that you would be coming to Fowl Manor tonight. Unfortunately I was too late to receive you, and I apologize for my untimely arrival."

"Well," she replied with a smile that she hoped was as chilling as his own, "I did break into your home."

"You _will_ have to tell me how you achieved that," he replied casually. "And just how you managed to retain a computer that can scan billions of files in a second."

"It's sort of a personal accomplishment," she said slyly, avoiding the first question entirely.

He smiled. "You must tell me about it some time. Now," he said, leaning back and sipping a cup of tea that she hadn't realized he was holding until now, "maybe you can explain why you're here, and why you were in the Haven earlier today."

Kaslynn blinked and swallowed a gasp. "So you saw me?" Darn. She had hopped that she'd erased the evidence quickly enough.

"Yes," he said. "I was browsing the camera selection, looking for a… friend. Instead I found you. Obviously you are no stranger to the fairy world, though I have to wonder how you got in and how you were introduced to the People."

"I sort of found out myself, and then… well, I've had help."

"Can you enlighten me?"

"I'd rather not."

"Very well then," he said with a slight sigh. "At least carry on to explain why you are here."

She sighed. "First I have to explain who I am, though I have to warn you that I won't just give you my entire history." A small frown creased her forehead. "Half because I just don't know it myself."

He nodded. "I will accept any information you give me. You too must be aware that I will not be willing to betray all of my information, and that I will be searching for more information on your person at a later time." Kaslynn's frown deepened, but she nodded as well. There wasn't much she could do about his prying. He gestured for her to continue.

"Alright," she said slowly, wondering how much to give up. "My name is Kaslynn Moden. I am fourteen years old, and I have lived on my own for about a year now, again with a little help. Something happened to me about… six years ago, I guess, that changed my life. Someone helped me after it all ended a year ago. I think you know him. N°1?"

Artemis nodded. "He went missing this afternoon. I'm guessing that this is the reason for your visit."

Kaslynn bit her lip. "I was nearby when he was taken. The kidnappers were wearing LEP uniforms. I… we never suspected it. He's my friend, and my teacher, I guess. He told me to find you, so I did. You must be able to help. Maybe I can help you, too."

Artemis frowned. "I have already begun a search for N°1. I mean no offence, but what could you possibly offer?"

Kaslynn took a deep breath. N°1 obviously trusted this person, and had sent her to him for a reason. He must want her to give him her trust. "I do have something to offer, but you must promise not to give away the information to anybody."

"You have my word. If you think that you could help, tell me what is you can do."

"I have demon magic."

Artemis sat forward, his interest peaked all the more. This girl was a startling mystery. He had left the house a few hours ago to make a trip into the Haven, settling the details of the trip to the Parisian catacombs. Halfway through the meeting, he had received a message from his home databanks saying that an unknown source had searched through the LEP files on him. Upon further research, he had been amazed to find that, whatever the source had been, it had ran through the files little over a second. Which was, even for him, almost impossible. Not only that, but after hacking into the computer's system, he found that he was blocked from most of the files, and that little boxes of print continually popped up. It was as if the computer had been programmed so thoroughly that it seemed almost… alive. He had been able to turn on the recording system and listen to the girl talk to someone who never replied, and gathered that she would be paying a visit.

Stranger still, his outside security system did not detect anyone approaching the house, and yet here she was. As if she had just appeared here. With this new statement, he couldn't discard the notion.

He decided to try and rat out a lie if there was one - though she seemed sincere. "That's impossible," he told her. "You're human." Not to say that having demon magic was impossible if you were human, but even so, it was very unlikely.

"Really? Well, don't be too surprised to find out that you're wrong," she replied with an edge. "N°1 says that because of what happened a year ago… five years ago… I have some of his power."

"Explain to me what happened one or five years ago," Artemis said, interested in the fumble with the years. It sounded almost like his own confusion when he had arrived back on earth after his trip into limbo a year ago.

"Well, it's sort of hard to explain. N°1 told me that there are these portals - or at least, there were, up until a year ago - that could take you from this time and put you into another, if you were rooted down with silver. I didn't have any silver. I got pulled in, and I got lost for a long time. I was thirteen when I went in. I was in the time stream for minutes, it seemed, but it was really years. Or was it? You can't really tell. I wandered for seconds, maybe, or hundreds of years. I can't explain it. Then I ran into something more solid. I was jumping through times and I landed on a volcano. Then I was gone, but I ran into a huge group of people, or demons, rather, coming from it, lead by two warlocks, I think. Mostly I could only feel one of them - that would have been N°1. He's so powerful, I was just drawn after him. And then somehow, I just sort of latched on, and then we were back in the real world, and I was on the volcano. And somehow, when I was taken out of the time stream, I took some of N°1's warlock magic with me. He didn't notice it for a while; he's so powerful, it was like taking a drop of water out of a huge pool. But I noticed. Quite a lot." She shivered at some memory. "When I got out, it was four years after I went in. My family died in a car crash two years after I went into the time stream, and people had stopped looking for me. I lived in my old house for a while, but… I burnt it down accidentally. I was carrying so much raw power, and I didn't know how to use it. N°1 found me and explained, and I've been learning with him ever since."

Artemis felt slightly shocked, which was odd because he wasn't about to die. Artemis was rarely shocked by anything that wasn't life threatening. "You must have been with us," he said slowly, amazed. "You went in a year before I did, around the time that the stream started to unravel. I pulled us back three years after I went in, but four years after you did. Incredible."

Kaslynn raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Artemis sighed. "I see that I, too, will have to start at the beginning."

Over the next hour or so, Artemis explained (in simple, easy to understand words) how he had become involved with fairies. He didn't tell her too much, only explaining things that would be important to her understanding of how she came to be in the time stream with him. By the end, she looked shocked but at least less confused.

"So, you're the reason I came out three years late?" she said hotly. "Honestly, couldn't you have been more precise?"

Artemis glared at her coldly. "No, in fact, it is hardly possible. Qwan - who I'm sure you know - explained very clearly that it almost cannot be done. My own studies show that, to get anywhere close to your preferred place and time, you must obtain an extremely high level of focus. So high, in fact, that most human minds are incapable of reaching it for more than two seconds. You are incredibly lucky that you did not end up five hundred years in the past, or a thousand into the future."

Kaslynn let out an angry breath. "Sorry. I just… If I'd been there sooner, maybe I could have used my new power to save my family."

Artemis softened ever so slightly. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The girl shrugged, her purple eyes flashing. "Not really your fault, I guess. I was just jumping to blame someone." Her thin form melted into the shadows. It was very dark out now, and the light in the room, couldn't totally illuminate the shadows. Kaslynn shivered slightly, cold. Artemis, of course, noticed.

"It is a little chilly in here," he mused, as if she had commented on the fact out loud. Kaslynn's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. "Perhaps I should call in Butler to light the fire."

She waved a hand. "No, no, don't bother. I'll do it."

Artemis tried to stop her. "Please, a guest in my home has no need to…" Kaslynn cut him off.

"Really, it's not a problem." She looked at the fire place for a moment, narrowing her eyes in thought, as if taking in the dimensions. Then, very simply, she snapped her fingers. The wood that was laid down inside at all times instantly caught fire. Artemis coughed lightly.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked, one eyebrow quirked.

She shrugged. "I figured you wouldn't really believe me until I showed you."

Artemis had to admit that she had a point. If she was clever enough, she could have discovered his history and put the story together. Unlikely, but a possibility. Yet with her small act of proof, there was little room for doubt. He steepled his fingers in thought, and then said, inquisitively, "May I ask you a question?"

Kaslynn gave a cautious nod.

"I explained how I myself took a small bit of demon magic while in the time stream," he started. "Afterwards, I experienced some side effects that were rather… unpleasant. Headaches, nausea, sometimes mild fevers whenever I used it. My theory is that my body was simply not adapted to fairy magic. I had only a small amount. How are you, another human, able to even survive with so much power contained in you for your own use?"

Kaslynn shrugged. "We're not sure. N°1 says that my body contains slight hints of regular fairy magic - something totally apart from his own. He thinks that, some time in history… way back in history… someone in my family was one of the People. I have fairy blood in me naturally, and so I can use his magic more easily. He says it was on my father's side," she said thoughtfully. Then she shook her head. "Anyways, he says that I have certain abilities that are very different from any warlock's, demon or otherwise. He thinks that, with the diluted fairy magic in my blood, and my being a human, the warlock magic has changed into something totally unique. And it's changed me, too." She pointed to her eyes. "These used to be blue." She frowned at him. "Bright blue, just like yours."

Artemis glanced over her again. The resemblance between them was definitely uncanny, though there were major differences. The main things that could only be passed down through family, besides the eyes, were not the same. The ears, the shape of her nose, the shape of her hands… none of them were like his at all. Usually those features were the same in families. Still, her hair was the same raven black, and her eyes had apparently once been blue. Blue like his, or so she said. Of course, it could be an inaccurate comparison. Even so, it was something to look in to.

Kaslynn continued. "So, I do a lot of weird stuff." She brought the conversation back to the original topic easily and with purpose. "Some stuff that could be helpful to you."

"You can light a pile of wood on fire," he said with a slight roll of his eyes. "Is there anything else that you can do that would benefit this mission?"

"I can talk to N°1 through my mind. I can turn invisible, both by vibrating and by bending light around my form. I can use small bits of my magic, trapped in jewels, to teleport from place to place in seconds. I can control electronics to some extent; you saw that when I shut off the cameras earlier. And…" she blushed slightly, as if embarrassed. "My voice."

"Your voice?" Artemis repeated. "What about it?"

"It does things," she said. "Crazy things. I can control people with it, and make things happen. When I was first getting used to the power, that was the most trouble. I used to make people sad or angry or happy just by talking to them. People fell in love with me. People wanted to kill me. It all depended on what I said to them, and how I said it. Or not even to them. People who heard me humming a love song while I walked down the street would become my stalkers for months. At least, until I learned how to contain the magic and not let it seep into my voice all the time."

Artemis thought about that. It could make sense, and yet it didn't. Magic didn't effect the body of the holder but for healing them and, with demons like N°1, causing their markings to glow. The magic that he had held had not "seeped into" any part of him, as far as he could tell.

Yet that was, in fact, how the _mesmer _worked, after all. Fairies would will the magic into their eyes and use it to control people. But not only their eyes, he realized. Also their voices.

He decided to settle it. "Perhaps a demonstration? You are right about me, after all; I won't believe it until I see it for myself. Besides, I am curious."

Kaslynn paled and bit her lip. "I don't think I should do that," she said.

"Please, I insist."

"You really don't know what you're asking for," she replied, her eyes staring into his.

He smiled, his teeth flashing. "No, but I am willing to find out."

Kaslynn didn't know what to do.

On one hand, she had sworn never to use her voice on anyone ever again. It was horrible and sometimes she couldn't totally remove the magic from their system. On the other hand, she had to have this insane boy's help. Finally, she sighed. "This will not be pleasant," she told the crazy Irishman.

He just smiled wider. "My life is not generally pleasant."

She grimaced and muttered, "Well, this might make the top of your list."

Kaslynn closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing the fountain of magic in her to curl around her voice. It did so eagerly, because that was where it belonged. She opened her eyes, which were glowing ever so slightly, and said, with no emotion, "Artemis."

He winced and suddenly went ridged. As she had suspected, he had what Qwan called a "true name". A name that perfectly described his character and personality, and offered total control if someone had the power to do so. She swallowed and continued.

"I want you to forget everything you know about me. You do not remember any of it."

He fought her. So strongly, like no one she had ever encountered. She had to push his mind into place with her magic, forcing memories out of his head. When it was done, she said, "Alright. We're done. You are released." The last three words were said almost formally, and were, in fact, no said with any command. They were for her, not him; it was a mind game that N°1 had suggested. A phrase that told her power to come back to her and bring its effects with it, so that the person was left whole and healthy and untampered with.

Artemis slumped forward, breathing hard. He looked up at her in amazement, and she said glumly, "I told you that it wouldn't be pleasant."

He sat up straight again, already over the mental battle. She felt a deep appreciation for his intellect, now that she had dealt with it herself. "It was… interesting," he said slowly, staring at her with almost fascination. "Might I ask why you wanted me to forget about you?"

She shrugged. "It was the first thing I thought of, and it wasn't important. If I couldn't pull the power back, which sometimes happens when I do that, it wouldn't matter. We could just start over, but you'd be in the dark as to why I was here. Or I could have just left and come back some other time. It wouldn't really have effected anyone but me."

Artemis nodded at the insight. "Very well. I appreciate the demonstration. May I ask why you are so keen to help us on this mission?"

Kaslynn sighed and drew her knees up to her chest. "I already told you that N°1 and Qwan are my teachers. They're also my friends… even if Qwan doesn't know about me. N°1, though. He's really the only thing that's close to a family for me now. He's my best friend. He helped me when no one else would. I have to help him."

Artemis stood and paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, thinking. "Let me see if I have all of the facts. You have demon powers, correct? You have a connection to N°1. You will stop at nothing to get him back. You know about the People, but they do not know about you. Most importantly, no one on Earth, aside from N°1 and myself, knows about your existence. Anyone who knew you before takes you for dead. Correct?" She nodded.

"Yes, but why does that matter?" she asked, confused. Artemis stopped pacing, placing a finger on his lips in thought.

"It is important because the group we are trying to take N°1 back from, the Black Keepers, are very powerful and know of nearly all of my assets. It is direly important that I have something to surprise them, but it is almost impossible to keep them from discovering my secrets. They are very good, you see, and they have one of my past enemies with them now… Opal Koboi. She is a mastermind, a very diabolical one," he said with a grimace. "I continually have to deal with her, and yet she just shows up again and again with no restraint."

Kaslynn snorted.

Artemis continued. "It is beside the point. I need to have something that I can use against them that they are not already prepared for."

She nodded, seeing the plan. "I need to stay nonexistent until I'm needed."

Artemis grinned. "Exactly. I need, to but it in a more simple and cliché term, a secret weapon. And that, Kaslynn, is you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Into the Maze**

Kaslynn watched Artemis from his own study, slumped against her fist as she watched the screen of the computer, contemplating the youth portrayed there.

Frowning, she zoomed in on his face and took a picture of it, which was, of course, perfectly clear despite the zoom. She studied it for a moment and then, concentrating, pulled the red demon magic away from her eyes, leaving them their regular blue color, with maybe a fleck or two of purple. The computer took a picture of Kaslynn as well, with the blue eyes, which disappeared in the purple a moment later. Then she promptly vanished.

A moment later a violet spark cracked in the air and she reappeared on the other side of the room, holding her computer. Opening it, she attached it to Artemis's computer terminal and downloaded the two pictures.

"Mac," she said, pulling the pictures up, "scan the bone structure of these pictures, would you? Give me a 3D rotation."

_iFine,/i_ the text said, and a second later her own head and Artemis's were rotating in her view, fully colored and incredibly lifelike and detailed. Kaslynn sat back.

"You think there's any… resemblance?" she asked her computer.

_iWhat are you, an idiot? Of course there's a resemblance. Either we're looking at some kind of odd mixing of DNA from the dimensional warp, or you two are related./i _

"Must have been the dimensional warp," Kaslynn said, saving the pictures. "Relatives? No way. And no way am I related to him. We're in Ireland. I'm American, remember?"

_iCould be a distant relative./i_

"That my parents never told me about?"

_iSure. Why not? We could at least run the scans. That's not hard. I already have your DNA codes./i_

"Will it make you happy?"

_iHardly. I'm a computer./i_

"Fair enough. Will it make me happy?"

_iHow should I know? Again, I'm a computer. Will it increase your level of endorphins or induce a chemical reaction to stimulate happiness? Probably not. Humor me; I get bored./i_

Kaslynn waved a hand. "Fine, do what you like. I'll get you a sample of his hair or something like that." With that she pushed the entire idea out of her mind, at least until this business of finding N°1 and the "Keepers" Artemis had spoken of. With a quick glance up at the screen to make sure that Artemis was still in the dinning room, organizing a trip to Paris with Holly and Foaly, she said, "Mac, run a search through the LEP files, Foaly's in particular, and give me a summery on the Keepers and this inverted magic stuff."

The computer whirred in a particular way, which Kaslynn had learned to interpret as a snort. i_Inverted magic,/i_ Mac said, i_who uses that nowadays?/i_

"I don't i_know/i_," she replied testily. "Enlighten me."

_iSuch ignorance. Fine, I'll tell you, I suppose. The Black Keepers were originally a group of demon warlocks that were… what you would call "bad". They retained the savagery of their kind, even though they had power over magic. This was not good. When the People moved underground and the demons didn't want to, these warlocks forced the others into submission using a power they referred to as "clear energy". They believed that, with its intense power, it was energy in pure form. Powerful demons can't tell when they are being corrupted by an inverted spark; their magic mingles with it slowly and it eventually totally overtakes them. When they're already evil, there's really no change. So, they used the power they got from the spark to push the demon's island into limbo. Some of their followers were regular fairies, not demons, who couldn't use the power of the spark in its full form, but managed to feed off of the energy that came off of the demons when they used it. They continued to search for inverted sparks over the years, while preserving the last one found by the demons./i_

"So, what is inverted magic? I still don't get it," Kaslynn complained.

i_Inverted magic, as the term implies, is the exact opposite of magic. There are numerous subjects on exactly how it came about, but the most common and plausible theory is that, like antimatter for instance, it has always been around, since magic and energy were first created. It is the exact opposite of magic. Not technically evil, actually. But when it gets close to regular magic, it starts the sort of… elimination process. Tiny little sparks join together and cancel each other out, so eventually the demon using the spark is left with nothing. The demons never actually lived long enough to experience this, though. The magic terminating itself would kill them after a few years, IF they had equal amounts of inverted magic and magic./i_

"Then… why use it?"

i_Most of them had much more regular magic if they were going to use the spark. They made sure of it. If they had enough magic, the spark would wear itself out eventually and they would be left with their own magic. They could use the energy from the inverted spark however they wanted in the time given./i_

"Hmm," Kaslynn murmured. "So, what about this spark that Artemis tried to protect? The one they got back?"

i_The Keepers were guarding the spark. It was the last one found by a demon. They were waiting for the demons to come back, so they could find one and merge him with the spark, thus creating a weapon that would allow them to wipe out the human race. I suppose they're tired of hiding. _/i

"I expect you're right," Kaslynn agreed moodily. "So that's what they want N1 for, is it? To make him into a weapon?"

i_Yeah, probably. _/i

"Great," she growled. "Anything else I should know?"

i_Oh, yeah. They found another spark, a slightly less powerful one, while the demons were in limbo. I don't think the Mud Boy knows._ /i

Kaslynn jerked. "You mean Fowl? Well… should we tell him? Is that what they took Qwan for?"

Mac seemed to pause before answering. i_The demon Qwan isn't powerful enough to except the spark. They'll figure that out soon enough. _/i

Kaslynn frowned. "What about the other warlock? The one that came back as well, who has the warriors body?"

i_Not nearly powerful enough._ /i

The girl sighed in relief. "Good. That's it. There are no other demons. We just have to rescue N°1. Artemis doesn't even need to know about the other spark. They can't use it on anything."

Mac whirred nervously. i_That's not… technically… true._ /i

"What do you mean?" Kaslynn said with a frown. "Of course that's true. There are no other warlocks."

i_Not as such. But there is someone else who's powerful enough to accept the spark, though it would be fatal. _/i

"Who?" Kaslynn demanded, not prepared at all for the answer.

i_You. _/i

"Alright then," Artemis said briskly, "it's settled. We'll meet at the entrance tonight, at ten o'clock p.m. Sharp. I have an updated map from the Keeper's databanks, which I am sending to you now," he said, sending the said file.

Foaly, on the computer screen, made a face at the file as he brought it up. "Really? This looks like a goblin's kid drew it with a fork."

"Crude, yes, but effective. They give it to their interns, if I'm not mistaken. Some of them are goblins."

"Naturally," Foaly said with a grimace, saving the file. After Holly had a quick laugh over it, she became serious again.

"So," she said, "got any major plan as to how this is going to go, Arty?"

"Of course," Artemis replied vaguely. "Anyways, this is just a scouting mission, essentially. If N°1 is not there, then we will simply move to the next target. We probably have a few weeks before they try to introduce the spark to N°1. From what I've read, there is a very long process involved in preparation."

"Hmm," Holly said, leaning on Foaly's chair to get a better look at the screen. "How do we know that they're not expecting us?"

Artemis thought about Kaslynn, sitting upstairs, invisible in case Foaly was watching. "They could be, but I'm sure they're not quite ready for everything I have in mind."

**Paris, France, unknown entrance to the Catacombs**

At ten o'clock, a ghostly shadow of a figure wafted up to the edge of a street in Paris, France. A slim hand darted out of the shadows and waved through the air, sweeping across the lines of lamp posts shinning light onto the glistening street. Each flickered for a moment before fading to black. Kaslynn slipped back into the shadows even as Artemis stepped out into the streets. They had a muted exchange in passing.

"I can just shield…" Kaslynn muttered to him.

"Stay in the dark and save your power," Artemis ordered back, hardly speaking. "We may need all of it later."

"Right. I'll meet you there," she said with a sigh, her eyes fading as she drew her magic away from them. The black clothes that she wore made her completely invisible. Her boots darted silently over the ground, making no sound.

It was cold this time of year in Paris. A chilly wind bit at her cheek, and she resisted the urge to raise her own body heat to counter it. Artemis had been very clear in what she was to do. Follow him, use no magic, don't show herself. Simple instructions, not nearly as easy to follow.

She kept her internal eyes on him as she slipped noiselessly through the dark, a ghost to ghosts. Her purple diamond was concealed in his shirt, guiding her to him. He was slightly behind her, heading the same way.

Paris was one of her favorite places to be, no matter what the situation was. The architecture was beautiful, and music and culture seemed imbedded in everything. Kaslynn slipped through the darkened alleys that she knew so well; she'd used this catacomb entrance before. By the time she reached the entrance, a flowering garden that was beginning to wither now, she was well ahead of Artemis. If he was in trouble, she could be at his side in an instant to help, so distance didn't matter. Kaslynn took out her cell phone.

She pulled up a program on the touch screen that no other phone could possibly have, even fairy ones. Mac connected to her phone over the internet easily, giving her access to everything he had to offer.

"Mac," she said softly, in a voice so quiet that no human or fairy ears could possibly hear it, layered with only a tinge of magic.

i_Are we in Paris?_/i he asked. i_Wait don't answer that, I already have your position. What's the plan?_/i

"Go in, find out whether N°1 is there, get out, with or without him. If he's not there, we'll have to try the next place, which Artemis still won't tell me."

i_Iceland._/i

"Right… Okay then. You read minds now, or something?"

The computer made a clicking sound that Kaslynn thought sounded distinctly annoyed. i_Don't be stupid. You connected me to his computer; I could deduce what he could from there. I doubt he knows anything I don't._ /i

"Such as where in Iceland we are to go?" Kaslynn said, grinning in the darkness.

i_… Maybe._/i

"Alright, never mind it. Artemis is almost here, and I'm not sure I want him to know about you quite yet. Did you get that map?"

i_Duh._/i

"Give it to me." He pulled up an image. Kaslynn set her finger on the screen and transferred the information to her mind, a trick that N°1 had taught her. i_All the information is already in your mind, if you look at it like we're all connected. Qwan says that the universe is all connected, and everything one man knows, you know, too. So, if a computer knows something, all you have to do is open the information already there. Or something,_ /i he'd said with a grin. She frowned at the memory. What if he wasn't okay? How could she stand loosing her only friend?

I won't, she told herself. It won't happen.

Artemis stepped into the garden. "Kaslynn."

Kaslynn had been distracted by her thoughts, and jumped at his voice. Her magic flashed out as she spun around, yelping, "Artemis!"

He stepped back, taking a breath. She could just have easily slapped him. Cursing herself silently for forgetting about his name, she said, "Sorry. You startled me."

He grimaced, shaking his head to clear away the ringing sound of her voice. Every time she said his name, he felt a brief moment of stark self awareness, which cut through his mind for a moment, as her voice did. He mentally waved the worry away. "It's fine. I should have been more careful. Are you ready?"

Kaslynn nodded. "Let me mark the entrance, first, so we can find our way back."

She stepped forward and knelt on the ground, finding the lid to the entrance in the dark. She pulled it up, humming a low note to increase her strength for a moment. It dropped to the ground without making a sound, curtsy of her magic. She leaned forward and peered down into the murky darkness, finding the glistening rings of a ladder. She placed her hand on the side of the wall, and purple light flared briefly around it. A violet handprint stayed on the wall, glowing for a moment before fading away. She pulled herself out of the hole in time to sense someone approaching.

"Holly's coming," she said, and disappeared.

Holly arrived moments later, alone. Artemis watched the shimmering air approach, and spoke as Holly unshielded. "No one else?"

"I didn't think it would be good to take anyone," Holly replied, lifting her visor. "If these Keepers are as good as you say we are, they could have infiltrated the LEP. As much as I hate the idea, even Foaly agreed that it was possible, and you know how he is."

Artemis chuckled quietly. "Of course you're right, though. The Keepers are capable of anything." He looked down at the hole in the ground, leading into the catacombs. "Well. I presume that you are prepared?"

Holly checked her readouts for a moment and pulled her visor down. "Come on, Artemis," she said, grinning. "I'm always ready." She jumped into the hole, catching hold of the ladder and sliding down to the bottom. Kaslynn appeared for a moment to raise an eyebrow at him before blinking out again. The Irish boy frowned at the patch of air that he expected she might be in and climbed into the Catacombs. He heard a spirit climb in after him, sealing the world away behind them.

The Catacombs were totally dark, a frightening, inky blackness that threatened to choke anyone who had the madness to enter it without their own light. Kaslynn wanted to flood the corridor with light, but refrained from doing so. Artemis wouldn't be able to explain that away - or rather, he would, but Holly would remain suspicious, most likely. He couldn't afford anyone to know of her existence. It could spell disaster.

Holly's helmet light flickered on a moment later, shedding light on the bare walls. A few bones lay scattered here and there, as if some wandering skeleton had dropped them off and forgotten them. Moisture dripped down the craggy stone walls, glistening in the light. Artemis pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on, the lenses glowing blue white in the darkness. Kaslynn's eyesight had always been good, even in the dark, so she didn't complain. Not that she could.

Artemis looked around. "We need to make our way into the older parts of the Catacombs," he said to Holly softly. "The map, if I remember correctly, which I usually do, tells us that this passage opens on a larger cavern some way up." Artemis started off, Holly and the invisible Kaslynn following close behind. Soon the small passage opened into a larger room as Artemis had predicted. Their light didn't quite reach around the edges, creating dark shadows.

Here, the bones began. The walls were decorated with different types of bones, sculls and arm bones and other things that Kaslynn couldn't identify but figured Artemis could. The bones were old, worn and yellow, ancients searching them with black eyes. Holly shivered as Artemis looked between the many other passages leading out.

"This way," he said firmly. Kaslynn frowned, reviewing the map in her head. It had shown that the correct entrance was the one Artemis was indicating, but there was also a small red cross across the section. Something told her that it would be bad to head that way, and if she remembered correctly, which she had to, there was a small side entrance off to the left.

But how could she tell that to Artemis?

She couldn't pull him off and show him; that would look too strange. Finally she had to resort to tripping him, and as he stood up, she leaned down and said, "Artemis, this isn't right. There's another way…"

"Of course it's right," he muttered back, too quietly for Holly to hear. Then she couldn't talk to him again. Artemis led them into the passage, Kaslynn lagging warily behind.

Seconds later Artemis let out an uncharacteristic yelp. He stumbled back, almost running into Holly.

"What is it?" she asked, dancing out of the way.

Artemis rubbed his arm. "Some kind of field. A bit… shocking, if you understand my meaning."

"I think I follow you," Holly said wryly. "How do we get past?"

Artemis took out a small device and scanned the walls. "The generator for it is on the other side of the force field." He sighed. "Unless the system suddenly collapses, we'll have to find an alternate way through."

Kaslynn realized that he was actually talking to her. She approached the wall, touching it lightly with her finger and receiving a nasty shock. Smothering a yelp, she sucked on her finger and knocked out the system.

Artemis portrayed the emotion of surprise so perfectly, for a second Kaslynn herself believed that it had conveniently gone out on its own. Holly passed her hand wearily through the space where the force field had been. Giving Artemis a probing look, she said, "Convenient."

"I suppose it is," he agreed. "I would say lucky, even."

"Artemis, you don't believe in luck."

Artemis almost winced, but didn't. "Perhaps my views on the subject may change."

Kaslynn grimaced to herself. If they were having any kind of luck, it wasn't good, and her gut told her that it would continue to get worse.

Of course, she was right, as she generally was. It started with the force field and continued on to include stealth cameras, invisible pits, dead ends, and a large maze that both Kaslynn and Holly were at a loss for how to navigate; it wasn't on the map. Artemis lead them out using his superb memory while knocking out cameras.

Kaslynn and Artemis were both taking out cameras, and, as they were Artemis and Kaslynn, respectively, this turned out to be a rather competitive routine. Artemis would try to take out more cameras with his technology than Kaslynn as she tried to do the same with magic, each telling themselves that it was idiotic and childish to be doing so at the time.

Kaslynn was so immersed in cutting off the cameras that she unavoidably ran into one of the traps unawares. Luckily, this was a trap that would be lethal to anyone but herself. A deep pit that had a web of silent lasers mapped out below it, ready slice apart whoever unwittingly fell into the hole. Of course, as Kaslynn stepped out over the hole, she did not fall, but instead continued to walk across the air. It was only once she was in the middle of the pit that she realized what was happening and spun around through the air, her hands flying up to her mouth as she realized that Artemis, if he'd been as distracted as she, was about to plummet into death. Her eyes darted back to the edge of the pit.

A small, inaudible sigh escaped her when she saw the two figures of Artemis and Holly standing at the other side. Artemis's blue eyes flashed in the dark, searching for something. Oh, her. A sign, of course. She held up a finger and let one tiny violet spark fall from it, something that Holly would never notice but Artemis would, because he was looking for it. The teen nodded once in the dark, standing a little behind Holly now so that she wouldn't see him communicating with Kaslynn.

Artemis had seen the pit right away. His mind had only been partly taken up with the problem of the cameras; his attention could be divided much more ways than just one. In fact, he had estimated that he could think up to about thirteen thoughts at once, as opposed to the average six. His only concern had been that his secret weapon had failed to notice the problem. He wanted to scoff at his worries as he watched the small purple spark fall into the darkness. Kaslynn probably couldn't be stopped by something so small as a mere hole in the ground.

"Alright, Arty, we've somehow made it this far," Holly said, her voice frustrated. "I'm not sure how you've done it, but I've learned not to trust coincidences. How are we going to get passed this? I can't fly us over it; this passage is too small for my wings."

Artemis let out a very small sigh as he stared vacantly at the spot he knew Kaslynn was. She wouldn't be able to help here without giving herself away. Yet this was a simple trap. There had to be a way to cross it without suffering injury or death.

The teen squatted next to the edge, an action that he deemed degrading and fairly horrific. Digging out his phone, he ran a scan over the area and was delighted to see that he had been correct. An invisible path ran through the air, probably a metal walkway coated in camfoil. A sly grin lit up his features for a moment.

"It's quite simple, Holly. We just need to find the correct path." Always one for theatrics, Artemis rechecked his scans and stepped confidently into the open air. Holly yelped in surprise and groaned when she saw him standing seemingly on nothing, smirking at her.

"Artemis, one of these days you're going to get it," she muttered, following him across.

Kaslynn laughed silently and walked through the air after them, her feet making no sound when she stepped back onto the ground. They continued on for a while, she following behind now with Artemis leading. She heard his muted curse a few minutes later and slid around Holly to the front. She contained her own curse at the dead end.

And that was before the wall shut behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Secrets Escaping

Kaslynn let out a low curse, to quiet for Holly to hear. Holly, however, wasn't nearly so reserved.

When she was finished, Holly said, "Artemis, what are we going to do about this?"

Artemis frowned at the walls, his ivory brow furrowed. "Just let me think for a moment…"

Suddenly something in the walls groaning, and the two walls to either side of the one that, a moment before, had been a doorway, started to slowly ground toward them.

"Think faster, Arty," Holly said grimly.

Artemis turned in a full circle, looking curiously as the walls. "Fascinating. I wonder if they use older techniques to move the walls, or something more modern?"

Kaslynn contained a groan. Leave it to the mud boy to find a death trap fascinating. Holly seemed to have the same view on the situation. "That's great, Artemis. How to we get out?"

"Don't panic, Captain," Artemis said uneasily. "At the rate those walls are moving, we have at least ten minutes before they reach us."

"Which I assume is long enough to formulate and execute a plan to get us out of here?"

"No," Artemis said, grimacing. "It matters not. There is literally no way out."

"What do you mean, no way out?" Holly repeated, aghast. "You're Artemis Fowl! You always have a way out."

"Holly, we are in a room of solid rock, not too far underground, under a maze of tunnels. My initial plan was to simply blow a hole in the side of the wall, large enough for us to escape through, but there is a very large chance that any explosions will collapse the tunnels above us, crushing us much faster than these walls will. So I decided that we could contact Foaly and have him override their system, but it is likely that the time it takes him to break into their system will be longer than what we have. Even if he did manage it before we are crushed to a pulp, it is possible that this system does not involve computers or even electronics. There are no openings through which to escape, and we now have only eight minutes before we are crushed. If you have noticed something that I have not, please inform me of it."

Holly sighed. "You had time to think all that in the time between when the door shut and I asked you how we could get out?"

Artemis gave her a smug smile. "I had figured you were passed being surprised by my intellect."

"I'm feeding a flame," Holly groaned. "A huge, roaring fire, actually."

Artemis eyed the walls rolling toward them. "A soon to be extinguished flame, I'm afraid."

Kaslynn was only half listening to the exchange. If what Artemis said was true, she was their only chance of escape. But, they also needed to find out whether or not N°1 was here. So, she sat down on the floor and closed her eyes, sending her thoughts out as far as she could, above, below and in all four directions. The world became sparks and twisted lights as she viewed the world through magic.

Holly showed up as a bright blue spark, the magic in her threading through her body like veins out from the bright, white-blue core. Artemis had little traces of magic in him, tiny blue sparks that made his being look a little like it was covered in glitter. A little smile pulled at her lips, knowing how he would hate that image.

She pushed herself out wider, seeking more than just the shimmering, magic coated world around her. A few fairies were around, bright blue sparks of varying hues, depending on how much magic they had. But there was no bright red, super nova-like magic well that was N°1.

As soon as she determined this, Kaslynn's eyes snapped open. If N°1 wasn't here, then they needed to get out. She looked for the handprint that she'd left up above, but to her annoyance it had already worn off. Magical markers like that, not contained in anything, never lasted long. She would have to take Holly and Artemis someplace else.

Standing up, she realized that she'd been searching for N°1 a little longer than she'd meant to. They were now all standing in a small space about three feet wide. Artemis was leaning against the wall, gazing around the small space as if wondering when she was going to get around to saving their lives.

He didn't realize how hard it was to transport other people. Kaslynn frowned and her brow creased in concentration. First she decided on a place; easy enough. Fowl Manor, in the sitting room where she and Artemis had first talked. She had a jewel placed in a jar there, dragging her over. She let herself be pulled by it, hovering between the two places. Both in the sitting room and the catacombs, Kaslynn walked to her left and looked through the two worlds at the hazy images of Artemis and Holly, who were now pressed tightly between the two walls. She set her hand on Artemis's shoulder, and feeling her presence he grabbed onto Holly hand. As soon as Kaslynn felt both of them connected to her magic, she completed the transfer to Artemis's home, pulling them gasping into the sitting room.

Artemis stumbled back, falling into a chair, his face drained of color. Holly placed a hand against her chest as she braced her other hand against her knee, gasping.

Kaslynn fell against the wall, her face gray as her shields flickered off, her body not used to channeling so much magic. "Ow," she gasped, leaning against the wall for support.

Artemis grimaced while Holly stared at Kaslynn, her face stunned but not as surprised as Kaslynn would have expected. "So, who's this?" she asked Artemis wirily.

"This is Kaslynn," he replied, rubbing his aching temples. Whatever Kaslynn had done, his system was obviously not prepared for it. "She… inherited some of N°1's magic via a dimensional warp."

"I see," Holly replied, keeping it safe just in case Artemis broke into stating theories on the multiple dimensions and times, and how to go in between. "She's that one who's been helping us get passed the traps?"

"Yes," Kaslynn said this time, glaring at Artemis. "And we wouldn't even have run into them if he'd just listened to me."

Artemis have a noncommittal shrug. "I apologize; I was being hard headed."

"You're head's like a solid rock," Kaslynn muttered. "I can hardly blame you for being hard headed. There's not much else you can be."

Holly chuckled. "I like this girl. She insults you."

Artemis frowned. "Yes, yes, very amusing I'm sure. Thank you, Kaslynn, for the display of wit and humor."

"And for saving your lives, don't forget that."

Artemis sighed. "Thank you. Even if the effect was slightly… unsettling."

Holly snorted. "Unsettling doesn't exactly cover it."

Kaslynn grimaced. "Sorry. I was under a bit of pressure. If I'd had more time to prepare, it wouldn't have been so rocky."

The elf shrugged. "I'm used to this kind of stuff. Knowing Artemis, it happens to you a lot."

Kaslynn gave Artemis a shrewd look. "I'd expect so."

Artemis shook his head. "Everyone is allowed to stop making distasteful jokes at my expense now. Besides, the important thing is that we escaped with our lives. My only regret is not discovering whether or not N°1 was being kept in Paris."

It was Kaslynn's turn to shake her head. "He wasn't. I did a magical scan of the entire place, like this." She touched both of their hands before they could react, layering a view of what she liked to call the "magic filter" over their own vision. Holly gasped slightly, and Artemis looked intrigued.

"So, magic is contained in all particles, as I'd guessed?" he said, more to himself than to them. Kaslynn had to reply, though.

"Yes and no. Magic - or energy - and matter are separated, but, as you know, interchangeable. Energy mixes with and coats matter, giving the world the appearance of what you see now. If, of course, you know how to look at it. I searched for large wells of magic in the catacombs, something like N°1. He's very… bright."

"I'd bet he his," Holly murmured. Her eyes traveled over the room, skipping lightly past Kaslynn - she was too bright to look at for very long - and landing on Artemis. An amused laugh fell from her lips. "Artemis, you're… _glittery._"

Artemis looked down at himself and groaned. Kaslynn laughed too. "Artemis Fowl, your very own personal disco ball," she snorted, letting go of their hands. The world faded back into its regular hues. Holly and Artemis blinked a few times as their eyes adjusted back into the normal realm of sight.

"So," Holly said, taking off her helmet, "why have you been keeping Kaslynn a secret? I thought you would have learned your lesson after the whole inverted spark episode. You were almost killed. If you'd told us, we might have been able to prevent it."

Artemis rubbed the back of his neck. "Not necessarily true. It probably would have been taken easily even if you'd had it at the Haven. Kaslynn was a bit different, though. She is, or rather was, my secret weapon in this war. The Keepers would have no way of knowing about her, and so I planned to use her in situations such as the one we ran into." He sighed. "However, that situation came just a bit sooner than I'd wanted it to."

Kaslynn shrugged. "I was invisible the whole time. They probably just think you had some kind of teleportation device on you, if they were even watching that room. I'm sure they knew it'd activated, but they probably didn't have any cameras, as they would have been smashed by the walls anyhow, a waste of money. People are stingy."

Holly nudged Artemis. "You'd know all about that, huh Arty?"

Artemis grimaced. "Those days are behind me. Mostly."

Kaslynn continued. "Anyways, if they don't find any… remains in the room, what's to say the system didn't just glitch out and act on it's own? We were never there."

Artemis nodded slowly, one finger tucked under his chin thoughtfully. "You have a point."

"She thinks like you," Holly said with a sigh. "Just what we need; a _female_ Artemis Fowl."

"With demon magic," Kaslynn put in.

"And regular fairy magic, and your own hybrid magic," Artemis smirked.

"They're different?" Kaslynn asked, furrowing her brow. N°1 had never mentioned that.

"Slight variation in the color. Most of it was a dark purple - nearly maroon, but not quite. That was the demon magic, I assume. Another was lighter, closer to lilac, the hybrid magic, and the last was almost nonexistent, the common shade of blue used with most fairies." He gestured toward Holly as an example. "Did you not say that you had fairy blood, somewhere in your family?"

Kaslynn nodded slowly. "On my father's side…" She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. That's… interesting, though. Anyways, the point is, the Keepers probably still don't know that I'm here. Even if they did, it would take them a long time to figure out exactly what I am and what I can do."

Artemis smiled in a cold, calculating way. "Good. Then we can move to our next location."

"Which is where?" Holly asked.

Kaslynn looked up at Artemis and grinned. "The one place I haven't vacationed."

Artemis looked exasperated. "Have you been hacking into my computer?"

"No," Kaslynn said innocently. "My computer has been hacking into your computer."

Holly whistled. "Skill, mud girl, you've got serious skill."

Kaslynn shrugged airily. "It's not me, really. It's my computer."

Artemis gestured moodily at nothing with his hand. "Well, if you're such a smart girl, why don't you tell us where it is?"

Kaslynn's smile grew. "Egypt. We're going to see the pyramids."

"I'm not sure that I like you're over joyous attitude towards this mission," Artemis said as he watched Kaslynn strapping some odd bits of technology on her belt. "Do you recall our near death on the last one?"

"No, but I do recall yours," she replied, flashing him a grin. He huffed in reply.

"What exactly are you doing?" he asked her, eager to be on his way. Butler had already fueled up the jet and was waiting outside with Holly to take them to Egypt. Giza. What exactly the Keepers found so attractive about the place was beyond him. The history was fascinating, of course, but Artemis couldn't understand why such a modern society would want to bury themselves in such an ancient place. Perhaps the People's history in that area intensified their magic capabilities? Another thing to look into.

"I'm making sure I have easy access to Mac," she said, holding out her hand in the air. A Macintosh computer dropped into it out of nowhere, making Artemis jump ever so slightly.

"Who is Mac?" he asked, watching her open the computer. She stepped back.

"This is Mac," she replied. "Mac, wake up, please. You want to meet the mud boy?"

The computer hummed to life, the black screen filling with type. Artemis's eyes scanned it easily, amazed at the complex code being printed there. Suddenly the code finished loading and disappeared, to be replaced by words, written in Gnomish.

i_Well, look who decided to talk to me again. Have a good time in Paris?_/i

"Shut up, Mac, you know I've been busy. I sent you a million and two texts."

i_Six, not that it matters. What have you been doing the past three days?_/i

"Eating caviar and crème brulee. Artemis wanted to meet you. We're going to Egypt in a few minutes. You want to come?"

i_No. If you need me you know where to find me. What does the mud boy want?_/i

"This is fascinating," Artemis cut in. "How did you program the computer to be so lifelike? It seems to have an entire personality of its own. I read the code - very odd - but it didn't seem complex enough for something like this."

"I didn't program him," Kaslynn replied. "When I first got him, my magic reacted to the computer and fused with it." She blushed. "I was still learning how to control it. The magic got into the computer and changed it. It became… sentient, and Mac was born."

i_It wasn't a pleasant process. Existing is one thing. Knowing you exist is quite another._/i

Artemis nodded in agreement. "Very true. I wonder if the internal workings are different from that of a normal computer?" He reached out to touch the keyboard and a violet spark snapped between his finger and the keys.

i_Lynn, tell the mud boy to lay off or I'll fry his system._/i

Under that particular threat, Artemis drew back hastily. "Very well. But I am… curious."

"Mac doesn't enjoy curiosity," Kaslynn said wryly. "Particularly in himself. He says it's unnatural."

"I suppose he would be correct about that," Artemis said with a small smile. "Shall we be off to Egypt then?"

Kaslynn whistled and Mac disappeared from view. A second later she was gone as well. Her voice floated out of the air. "Ready. Let's go; I've always wanted to fly in a jet."

Artemis led her outside and met Butler at the front of the jet, going over all of the safety measures that had to be taken care of before takeoff. Certain that everything was in order, Artemis checked his watch, which read ten till five. They would reach Egypt in roughly twenty minutes in his jet, meaning that it would be roughly around seven in Giza when they landed. He nodded once to himself and climbed aboard the spacious jet. The Challenger CL601was one of his favorite models, despite the fact that it was a few years old. With his own upgrades, it was very fast and extremely efficient.

Kaslynn was lounging in a chair when he came in. "Nice," she commented, playing with the switches on the seats. "Wish I had a jet. Beats an annoying cognizant computer."

"Hardly," Artemis casually disagreed. "I would pay quite a lot more for the computer."

Kaslynn looked up sharply and caught the gleam in his eyes, which, after only a few days of knowing him, she recognized instantly. "Oh, no," she said, leaning forward accusingly, "Mac is _not_ for sale."

The boy shrugged. "I was only making an offer. I would be willing to offer you a very substantial amount of money…"

"I hardly use human money at all."

"Fairy money, than. Gold. Jewels. Whatever you want."

Kaslynn shook her head in disbelief. "He's not for sale, mud boy."

A sigh escaped him, only slightly frustrated in nature. "Very well, it was merely a thought."

"It's not just that I don't want to give him up," Kaslynn said. "He would probably destroy your entire computer system." She gave him a shrewd look. "And he'd probably commit suicide."

Artemis chuckled darkly. "Thank you for the confidence. If you don't mind, I am going to work on some business transactions during the flight. You may use anything on the jet for your own devices, provided you do not end up costing me over one thousand dollars."

"Or crashing the plane, right?"

Artemis smirked as he pulled up his computer terminal on one of the touch screen windows - something that he'd devised himself. "That, my dear, is a given."

Kaslynn laughed. "You know, Artemis, I could probably keep this entire thing floating in the sky on my own."

"But," he replied, not taking his eyes from the screen, "any situation that would cause the jet to crash would likely cost more than one thousand dollars, thus violating our first agreement."

"Oh, very devious."

"Not exactly. It was an obvious clause."

"Artemis."

"Yes?"

"It's called sarcasm. Please, use your fancy computer to look it up."

"If I had a conscious computer…"

"No!"


End file.
